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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.

As of the official 1.0.6.4 update, the Core game engine has been upgraded to use the latest version of Stride. (4.1.0.1 and a newer version of .NET. As of the recent 1.1.0.9 Aurora Update, we now include .NET 7 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 1.1.8.1 (October 31st, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when generating ship design name
- fixed crash when ship unloads cargo
- fixed crash when resolving default mission for hovered ship
- fixed crash when cannot save game settings due to simultaneous file writes

FUEL TANKERS
- Fuel Tankers will now attempt to first completely refuel their fleet prior to retrofitting

SHIP DESIGN
- fixed Load Designs button often not loading designs even when meet tech requirements of current game

PIRATES
- fixed multiple messages when pirate faction destroyed
- fixed pirate ships acquired from destroyed pirate factions sometimes then switching to other pirate factions

Changes in 1.1.7.9 (October 27th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed a number of Stride rendering crashes
- fixed Selection Panel cycle item keypresses sometimes causing game to hang

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- improved willingness of manually assigned fleets and military ships to stick to current attack target (instead of switching to other target), thus improving ability to focus fire on enemy targets
- prevent individual fleet ships sometimes recklessly attacking targets that are too strong for them to handle
- improved Fleet Topup function so that trim correct number of excess ships based on fleet template (when 'Trim Excess Ships' is enabled)
- properly review and clear all relevant fleet escort data when a ship leaves it's fleet (fleet ships avoid escorting ships that have left the fleet)
- improved fleet lead ship selection so that more focussed on ships in main body of fleet
- improved ability of newly-added fleet ships to move to fleet location

CONQUEST AND CAPTURE
- now immediately review refuelling, repair and construction locations when conquer colony so that any ships or fleets can immediately refuel or repair there
- now immediately review refuelling, repair and construction locations when capture fuel mining station or spaceport so that any ships or fleets can immediately refuel or repair there

EXPLORATION SHIPS
- fixed exploration ships sometimes waiting near sleeping Hive ships without reassigning missions

DIPLOMACY
- fixed defeated empires sometimes being included when honoring defense treaties
- fixed some faulty requests to honor defense treaties when already at war with attacking empire

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- added explanatory tooltip to Load Designs button, outlining how this works

GAME EDITOR
- changed game editor so that removing a planet now properly also removes entire planet location (all related moons, asteroids, ships, bases), thus avoiding orphaned items
- fixed faulty Add Bonus dropdown in Game Editor

Changes in 1.1.7.6 (October 19th, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when calculating model scale
- fixed rare crash when ship is picking up debris
- fixed crash when updating use interface control tooltip positions
- fixed rare crash when generating Hive ship

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- fixed fleets sometimes attacking targets beyond their engagement range
- improved fleet willingness to persist with attacks against defined attack point instead of getting unnecessarily distracted with other targets
- improved fleet retreat evaluation - no longer prematurely break off attack while en route to target. Will also consider other nearby fleets en route to same location
- improved invasion fleet evaluation of defending strength when at target colony, will wait until other attack fleets clear target if necessary
- automated fleets will now always remain at their current location to defend if an incoming enemy fleet is detected for that location
- military ships in fleets are now more careful in threat evaluation when determining whether to upgrade attack mission against a target to use their entire fleet to ensure they always honor their fleet engagement range
- fixed edge case where ships and fleets were sometimes assigning futile attack missions against targets that were in hyperspace and were too hard to intercept
- troop transports in a fleet will now hold off loading further troops once they have adequate troops to invade their target colony (attack point). This makes invasion fleets more generally responsive and available for invasions, especially when have troop transports with large troop capacities
- troop transports in a fleet no longer unload troops at vulnerable frontier colonies, but instead focus on loading adequate troops for their invasion target. However troop transports which are not in a fleet will still ferry troops to vulnerable colonies to fulfill army template requirements

FIGHTERS
- fixed fighters sometimes not properly landing at colonies (planetary fighter bases)

TROOPS
- automated troop recruitment now focuses on recruiting one troop at a time on a given world, completing recruitment of any existing troop before queuing a new one, thus minimizing costs

UI FIXES
- selected ship or fleet no longer unintentionally receives mission assignment when right-click on navigation panel in Research Screen

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- now allow ship multi-select in most Civilian lists: All Civilian Ships, Freighters, Passenger Ships. This means can multi-select any ships in list using shift- and ctrl-click and then mass-scuttle using the Scuttle button under the Selection Panel

DATA CHANGES
- updated weapon intercept targeting values for all weapons
- updated planetary defence weapon values, especially weapon effects to make sure planetary defense weapons are visible when firing at enemy ships near the planet
- updated Ikkuro fusion beams

Changes in 1.1.7.4 (October 5th, 2023):

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed rendering issue in Selection Panel
- general performance improvements, especially in late-game

TROOP TRANSPORTS AND COLONY INVASIONS
- automated troop transports bringing reinforcements to invaded colonies will now cancel their mission as soon as the colony is conquered (instead of continuing on to the colony). Alternatively, if they assess that they might be able to retake the colony with their own invasion, will instead change their Unload Troops mission to Attack the conquered colony

EXPLORATION
- system map info from salvage now properly explores all locations in system to at least level 1

DATA AND STORY IMPROVEMENTS
Please note - Data and Story improvements are only available when starting a New Game.

- BASE GAME
- Mortalen story event "Destroyed Boskaran Troop Transport" has a lower discovery level so that players don't colonize the world prior to finding the event which makes it independent

- IKKURO/DHAYUT DLC
- Ikkuro "Web of Destiny" storyline has been rewritten: it should now be possible to lower the odds of Damazy rebelling if you put the effort in with money or research

- QUAMENO/GIZUREAN DLC
- added description for Scouring reputation impacts (not just 'General Incidents')
- Degenerate Gizureans story world has been reduced in quality to prevent it from being overpowered
- Quameno story project no longer stolen
- Kasim population no longer disappears suddenly

Changes in 1.1.7.3 (September 29, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when fuel tankers evaluate refuelling targets

Changes in 1.1.7.2 (September 28, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when assigning ship mission
- fixed crashes relating to mining prioritization

PERFORMANCE
- improved general performance, especially in late-game when there are many ships

COLONY POPULATION POLICIES
- implemented first pass of automated colony population policy settings for Resettle policy when unsuitable races at colonies
- fixed double-up of population policy races when reset colony population policy after conquest

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- now properly handle threat evaluation at deep-space locations outside systems so that enemies more likely to attack each other
- improved accuracy of enemy strength evaluation at invasion target so that invasion fleets more likely to invade colonies
- improved accuracy of range calculation when fleets evaluate whether to attack target, thus more likely to attack

FUEL TANKERS
- fuel tankers no longer attempt to refuel ships with any kind of attack mission

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- manually upgrading a design will now automatically disable Auto-Upgrading for that ship hull
- manually setting troop garrisons will now automatically disable auto-garrison for the colony

RAIDS AND CAPTURES
- Selection Panel now shows more comprehensive information on current Assault Pod strength for selected ships (when has assault pods) and fleets, thus helping to determine when a fleet or ship can undertake a raid or capture mission

GAME EVENTS
- now prevent pirates from accidentally investigating ruins in rare cases
- fix for issue with ancient ackdarian spaceport ping

Changes in 1.1.7.1 (September 22, 2023):

IMPORTANT NOTE: Among other important changes, this one changes how we build DW2 so that it should be more compatible with Linux/Proton, for those Distant Worlds fans who prefer to play DW2 on the latest Quameno-designed operating system. While Linux is not officially supported by DW2, this should make it quite possible to get it working. If you have been struggling with DW2 on your Linux systems, please give this build a try and let us know how it works for you!

LINUX SUPPORT
- changed game executable to better support Linux/Proton

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when rendering Message list
- fixed crash when repairing ships

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- fixed fleet ships so that can always rectify jumping inside planet, even when various edge-case factors could previously prevent this
- changed Defense Fleet behavior so that will now defend locations within range even when system is not part of empire territory (e.g. base outside territory)
- fleets can now only assign Capture missions when at least one of their ships has current active assault pod availability
- ships are now better at retaining their Capture mission when other ships at the location have current assault pod availability but they do not
- further improvements to Capture mechanics are coming in a future update.
- ensure automated fleets only investigate dangerous locations when have targets that they could conceivably attack (i.e. are enemy or unknown)

FUEL TANKERS
- when fleet fuel tankers are distant from fleet ships, prior to refuelling a fleet ship they will now check whether another fuel tanker for same fleet is closer than them and can handle refuelling in more timely manner
- fuel tankers in fleets now attempt to retrofit at the same time as their fleet to maximize their availability

COLONIES
- can now abandon a colony, making it independent (action button under Selection Panel)
- Abandon Colony button is disabled when the colony is your empire capital or is the last colony in your empire
- ensure reset colony population policy to default (assimilate all races) after invasion or rebellion

COLONIZATION
- tweaked automated colonization so that Colony Ships with preassigned colonization targets now seek other targets if original target becomes uncolonizable for some reason
- Colony ships that start with a specified load race will now only load that race (even when load colony population composition has subsequently changed), helping to ensure suitable races are used for new colonies
- differentiated Queue Colonization buttons to more clearly indicate when using an existing colony ship to fulfill a colonization mission

DANGEROUS LOCATIONS
- ensure dangerous locations exclude threats that are not really dangerous, e.g. bases from unfriendly factions that are not currently at war with
- freighters no longer attempt to fulfill resource orders from dangerous locations (e.g. Kasim)
- passenger ships always exclude dangerous locations when assigning migration or tourism missions

RESEARCH
- fixed ship hulls on tech tree (e.g. fighters) always resolving to human race hulls when research project is disallowed for player's race

MESSAGES AND NOTIFICATIONS
- fixed messages sometimes being prematurely expired because other filtered messages were being included in calculation of remaining screen height. This should resolve the sudden notification stack wipe issue.

GAME EVENTS
- now exclude dormant pirate factions in various situations (e.g. Kasim pirates) relating to pirate events
- lowered dormant junkyard pirate base tech levels (prewarp home system events) to ensure they are not stronger than active pirate factions

GALAXY MAP
- Refuelling Location icons in system badges now reflect current fuel levels (i.e. they will not show up if spaceports/mining stations are currently out of fuel) to help decide on construction/refueling orders from the galaxy map level

DLC FIXES
- Various minor ship hull, model, data and event fixes to both DLCs

Changes in 1.1.6.8 (September 15, 2023):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed a number of Stride rendering crashes
- upgraded DXVK rendering option to version 2.3

PERFORMANCE
- improved general performance, especially in larger games

GALAXY SETUP
- added new game startup setting - Hostile Races Near Player: allows specifying how many neighboring factions are hostile to the player. This can be used to effectively increase game difficulty
- added explanatory tooltips to Default Events in Start New Game screen (Victory Conditions step)

FLEET BEHAVIOR
- lead ships for fleets are now always selected as strongest ship at location with majority of fleet ships, i.e. try to avoid changing geographical fleet center when changing lead ship
- fleets auto-assigning attacks against queued enemy targets now consider targets in queue order, instead of proximity to fleet, this will make fleets more responsive to player queued targets
- fleets auto-assigning attacks against enemy targets (queued and non-queued) now make extra considerations for refuelling on way to target, thus extending their attack range
- ships in fleets with Prepare and Attack missions now immediately begin their attack against the specified enemy target when the target is at the waypoint location and is already attacking any other ship in the fleet
- fleets assigned to refuel and repair will now consider ships with damaged components to also need repair (not just destroyed components)
- fleets and military ships now better at breaking off attacks against enemy fleets that jump away and are thus now beyond their specified engagement range
- improved fleet Move To missions so that:
1. complete Move To mission in timely manner
2. fleet ships move closer to target
3. fleet ships avoid colliding with one another and pushing each other off course
4. avoid excessive short-range jumps (especially when have hyperdrives with unusually low accuracy values)

FUEL TANKERS
- fixed fuel tankers sometimes not loading fuel when empty
- improved fuel tanker ability to avoid dangerous locations when accompanying fleets

SHIP BEHAVIOR
- ships now determine optimal attack range by including ranges from all of their weapons (ion, intercept, area, etc) when have no main weapon types (standoff or close-in)

SHIP CAPTURING AND RAIDS
- ships in fleets with Capture missions now check for incoming fleet ships with assault pods (not yet at location) before completing mission due to lack of assault strength
- improved display of current assault strength in Selection Panel when ship is attempting to capture an enemy target
- successful raids on research stations or other bases now better at falling back to money bonuses if target empire has no research projects to loot that raiding empire has not already researched

CONSTRUCTION
- increased repair speed for very high tech abandoned ships (e.g. Planet Destroyer) so that can complete in reasonable time and use in the game

RESEARCH
- fixed repeatable tech research for planetary facilities and ship hulls only applying most recent repeatable tech changes
- further tweaked research priorities for automated research so that AI factions are better able to pursue and use all tech

CHARACTERS
- ensure all automated admirals with fleets are always onboard the lead ship for their fleet
- removed Uninhibited as a positive character trait, thus no longer gained from Rivalry Gizurean event

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed some premature message notifications about Hive fleet sightings
- fixed cycle next/previous key-presses sometimes not moving to next item (cycle colonies, cycle exploration ships, etc)

"fixed fuel tankers"

That'll be the day.

A new public beta is now live! While the game isn't officially supported on Linux/Proton, we've included some changes that should help make DW2 more playable on these platforms. Please try this build out and let us know what you think.

New version? Yay!

WOW, I did not expect it, checked the whole day, now its there.

And it shows that you listen and react quick. Thank you!

Hey everyone, a new public beta version live now! See OP for details.

We've released a new public beta fixing a crash issue related to fuel tankers. See OP for details.

Good day!

I bought this game at launch and I have enjoyed every minute of it and have purchased all the DLC! Keep up the great work. Yesterday, I started a new game and I noticed a glitch, but I resolved it before I could get a saved game to replicate it. I noticed that my colony ships when automated and given orders to colonize an independent kept loading and then unloading colonists. The colony ship was built but just stayed in orbit of my capital loading and then unloading colonists for a good solid 10 minutes of game play. The way I resolved the issue was to scrap the colony ship and build a new one. It then followed orders and colonized the independent. I noticed this once before after the hyper speed update, but I didn't have a chance to do anything because the planet I wanted to colonize was taken by another empire and the issue resolved itself. I assumed at the time it was loading and unloading because the other empire beat me to the colony. If I see this happening again I will immediately grab a saved game and send it your way.

Thanks again for the great work!

Parrius wrote: Fri Sep 29, 2023 2:07 pm Good day!

I bought this game at launch and I have enjoyed every minute of it and have purchased all the DLC! Keep up the great work. Yesterday, I started a new game and I noticed a glitch, but I resolved it before I could get a saved game to replicate it. I noticed that my colony ships when automated and given orders to colonize an independent kept loading and then unloading colonists. The colony ship was built but just stayed in orbit of my capital loading and then unloading colonists for a good solid 10 minutes of game play. The way I resolved the issue was to scrap the colony ship and build a new one. It then followed orders and colonized the independent. I noticed this once before after the hyper speed update, but I didn't have a chance to do anything because the planet I wanted to colonize was taken by another empire and the issue resolved itself. I assumed at the time it was loading and unloading because the other empire beat me to the colony. If I see this happening again I will immediately grab a saved game and send it your way.

Thanks again for the great work!

Thanks for the report! We've seen other reports like this previously. If you do end up catching a save showing the situation, definitely upload it and we'll take a look.

Parrius wrote: Fri Sep 29, 2023 2:07 pm Good day!

I bought this game at launch and I have enjoyed every minute of it and have purchased all the DLC! Keep up the great work. Yesterday, I started a new game and I noticed a glitch, but I resolved it before I could get a saved game to replicate it. I noticed that my colony ships when automated and given orders to colonize an independent kept loading and then unloading colonists. The colony ship was built but just stayed in orbit of my capital loading and then unloading colonists for a good solid 10 minutes of game play. The way I resolved the issue was to scrap the colony ship and build a new one. It then followed orders and colonized the independent. I noticed this once before after the hyper speed update, but I didn't have a chance to do anything because the planet I wanted to colonize was taken by another empire and the issue resolved itself. I assumed at the time it was loading and unloading because the other empire beat me to the colony. If I see this happening again I will immediately grab a saved game and send it your way.

Thanks again for the great work!

I've experienced this same bug a few beta patches ago, but haven't seen it since. You don't need to scrap the colony ship though. Simply take manual control of the ship, force it to load the desired passengers and then send it to the originally assigned planet. It should proceed to colonize it without issue.

A new public beta version is now live! There are some data and event changes included here, so we recommend starting a new playthrough to take advantage of these changes.

See OP for details.

Thanks for the continued support. Playing a lot of Starfield right now but will pick upp Distant Worlds 2 again bit later.

Changes in 1.1.7.4 (October 5th, 2023):

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed rendering issue in Selection Panel

Interesting. When I switch to "High Rendering" it goes after a game restart to very dark colors. Just like before.

Bad that this nasty bug keeps you busy for so long.

On my second PC it behaves a bit different, sometimes it looks normal, I made two Videos. It behaves odd.
Please read there the description, it could help finding a solution.
Vid1:
https://youtu.be/y2t9KayTdX0

Vid2:
https://youtu.be/tnCA0GzjkgI

P.s.: YOu can not see it... Also a screenshot shows it normal. Thats how other user reported it.
Sorry, maybe not that helpful.

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

Please note that the change list for 1.1.7.6 as original posted was incomplete. It has now been updated in the original post.

MaximKI wrote: Fri Sep 15, 2023 4:14 pm Hi everyone,
..
- fixed crash when updating use interface control tooltip positions
..

Is this a configurable option?
I would instantly switch it off or delay the tooltips.
But I can not find a new option in the settings.

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

watch this video to see how standard range looks like:
https://youtu.be/mvSnStfog3Q

to see how it looks like on full screen with high dynamic range rendering, look this video:
https://youtu.be/v776wvStbrI
it looks so bad, Standard Range is the value to go.
I converted the video with the brightness tuned down, so it looks like i see it.
BUT read further..

The third video shows how it should look like. It only works in windowed resolutions. (so it works for me!! unfortunately I do not like to play windowed..)

Hahaha, this is not working now... It looks now for me normal, but when I record it, it looks like it looks for me in full screen where it records normal.
So it behaves the other way around as it should be...
Now tataaaa... here comes the video that shows you how it looks for us when we play high dynamic range rendering on full screen.
You want to reproduce:
set your game to windowed and take a smaller resolution ( i have a native resolution of 1920x1080 and took a windowed resolution of 1360x768)
THEN: record this screen as a game with OBS and watch the results.

Watch it here:
https://youtu.be/cvUlFGeLkcQ

p.s.:
It happens (darkened screen on high dynamic range) on my pc ONLY when it is set to the resolution 1920x1080.
Other resolutions work flawless.
And that on a monitor that has a native resolution of 1920x1080.

It does not matter if set on windowed or full screen...

p.p.s.: If I change something in the settings, the problems occur again and only a restart helps it..

Is this forum the wrong place to post bugs? Should I better post at steam or where? Or is my english so bad that you don't understand me? Then pls tell me and I will try to write better english.

This would be fixed in 3 mins:
"At desgins at role there is also the size like small, medium and large pls delete this size at role because of sorting roles. It's the same at new design select ship hull, for example at freighters."
Role has nothing to do with size.

It's a very low hanging fruit.