Distant Worlds 2

[ojsdad]

Looks good.

[Martok]

DasTactic does a good breakdown of the clip, and how it compares/contrasts to DWU: 

[Undercovergeek]

Would you say the space community was divided between this and stellaris?

I never played DW but this looks pretty cool

[judgedredd]

I was so very lost with DW. I think that was a mix of me wanting to control everything and so many things being assigned to the AI. There were so many options iirc you could lose yourself for weeks just trying to find a happy medium.

It was a cracking game and the developer certainly believed in options rather then forcing players to play their way. That should always be applauded - but in the end trying to find a happy place to play broke me.

[Barthheart]

I was so very lost with DW. I think that was a mix of me wanting to control everything and so many things being assigned to the AI. There were so many options iirc you could lose yourself for weeks just trying to find a happy medium.

It was a cracking game and the developer certainly believed in options rather then forcing players to play their way. That should always be applauded - but in the end trying to find a happy place to play broke me.

Same for me.

[bbmike]

Me three.

[Martok]

Would you say the space community was divided between this and stellaris?

Definitely.  The two games are often/inevitably compared to each other. 

I never played DW but this looks pretty cool

Yeah, I'm excited for this one.  Distant Worlds is fantastic, one of my favorite 4x games of all time, but it's also very flawed.  From what Erik has said, one of their main goals with DW2 is to address the issues people had with the original game; and even from the brief clip he dropped, it appears they've made decent progress in that regard.  I'm really looking forward the big reveal in January when we get more info. 

I was so very lost with DW. I think that was a mix of me wanting to control everything and so many things being assigned to the AI. There were so many options iirc you could lose yourself for weeks just trying to find a happy medium.

It was a cracking game and the developer certainly believed in options rather then forcing players to play their way. That should always be applauded - but in the end trying to find a happy place to play broke me.

Same for me.

Me three.

Yeah, I think a lot of folks struggled with that, which is one of the (numerous) reasons DW remains more of a niche game than Stellaris. 

I think at least part of the problem (though maybe not for you guys) is that Distant World's UI is...not great.  Not that it was totally awful, but it definitely wasn't the most user-friendly either.  The small, non-adjustable font was a real problem as well; a lot of people were suffering from eye-strain.  When you have a game that's already pretty complex, and with a lot of admittedly sometimes-confusing AI automation options, a difficult-to-understand UI only makes things that much worse. 


I suspect that simply having a cleaner, easier-to-use interface could end up being the single biggest improvement DW2 has over its predecessor.  The improved visuals and functionality might almost feel secondary in comparison.   

[Undercovergeek]

Are the battles abstracted or are they as involved as stellaris - I like naming the fleets and the ships for a little rpg satisfaction

[Martok]

Yes, you can (re)name ships, fleets, planets, etc.  You just have to double-click an item in order to do so, which is slightly clunkier than in Stellaris (a common theme with DW), but it works well enough. 


Combat is similarly abstracted, although you can set standing orders for your ships/fleets that partially govern their behavior in battle (for example, how much damage they're allowed to take before they should retreat).  While not perfect, it's a pretty neat system that gives you a fair degree of flexibility in how you set your ships' behavior, but without having to micromanage them. 

[Undercovergeek]

Carrier battles with bombers?

Battleships that turn broadside on and release the fury?

[Martok]

Yes, to both...with one major caveat. 


Setting aside the wonderful myriad of options one can set to govern ship/fleet behavior, battles in Distant Worlds are admittedly somewhat lacking.  This is due to several factors, but a big one is that ships "blob up" while in combat more often than not.  (This is one of the issues that I suspect DW2 will address.) 

Unfortunately, this includes ships equipped with long-range weapons such as missiles, and carrier vessels fielding large complements of fighters/bombers.  You *can* set ships of this type to fire their weapons (or fighters & bombers in the case of carriers) from standoff range, but they still tend to get drawn into close-quarters fighting more than they should. 

[ojsdad]

Panzerde said something about reloading DW:U. So I decided to relearn it.

[Martok]

I typically fire it up about once a month and play for a couple hours or so.  I hate that the game is so "ugly" (more because of the UI than the actual visuals), but I can't seem to stay away from it indefinitely either. 



Incidentally:  For anyone who follows Slitherine on their Twitch channel, Ian said on last week's "Tea Time" episode that this Thursday's video will be a game announcement...   

[Martok]

Looks like the "big reveal" is coming next Tuesday! 

[Anguille]

Excellent! Can't wait.

I just wish they would release a patch for the first game to make sure it runs on Windows 10. I still have to play it on my older Windows 7 desktop as i haven't been able to run it on neither of the Windows 10 laptops we have at home.