Armchair Dragoons Forums

Wargaming => 4X Gaming => Topic started by: ojsdad on December 13, 2019, 08:45:14 AM

Title: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 13, 2019, 08:45:14 AM
Finally looks like it's going to actually happen.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4732812

Quote

Hi everyone,

We’ve been working on a new Distant Worlds game for more than four years now and we thought it was time to start giving you a peek at the journey we've been on.

Please note that the screenshot included here is not from a final, polished release build so will in places include some unfinished areas and placeholder art. There is much that is still subject to change between our current development build and the release.

This first peek is just a teaser to whet your appetite and to draw your attention to the fact that we are going to start talking more about where we're going over the coming weeks and months.

What you see below shows a view taken from just behind the night side of a Mortalen Rocky Desert Planet, Shaom Hee 6. On the dark side, you can see some lights from the Mortalen colony below. On the light side, you can see a small storm in the atmosphere above the world, as well as a Medium Space Port and a variety of ships coming and going, carrying cargo or colonists, or guarding the area against pirates or other intruders. The snippet of interface in the bottom shows the planetary bodies, ships and stations at this location and is an easy way to navigate what's within your view. Note that this is a cropped screenshot and there is much more that is not shown.

With that said, we think the image itself conveys a good bit of new information and we’ll leave it there for now so that you can discuss.

Most importantly, we do plan to show more and speak about where Distant Worlds is going in more detail in our Home of Wargamers Twitch live stream event on December 19th, around Noon US Eastern time / 5PM UK time, so please tune in then for some more information. I will also be participating in the Twitch chat during the live stream to answer questions.

We appreciate your interest in Distant Worlds and we hope you enjoyed this first brief teaser.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: panzerde on December 13, 2019, 03:19:49 PM
Finally!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 14, 2019, 11:24:26 PM
About bloody time.  At least this indicates the game might actually come next year, although I still have my doubts.  (I'd been starting to project a 2021 release date.) 

Looks pretty good from the primary screenshot.  Here's hoping they've improved the gameplay & mechanics along with the visuals. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 15, 2019, 04:25:30 PM
Martok, hopefully we'll be playing DW2 this time next year.!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 15, 2019, 09:36:25 PM
Martok, hopefully we'll be playing DW2 this time next year.!!!!!!!

Seconded!  This is one instance where I won't mind at all being proven wrong about a game's release date.  :) 

In fact, I have reason to believe beta-testing is suppose to begin around March, so an autumn release seems both feasible and fairly likely.  Keeping fingers crossed! 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 15, 2019, 09:50:08 PM
The only thing that will delay my purchase, is that I'll get my anniversary coupon on Dec 9.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 16, 2019, 11:38:23 PM
My anniversary coupon shows up around the end of August, so it'll be interesting to see if the timing works out as to whether or not I'll be to use it for DW2.  (Fingers crossed!) 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on December 19, 2019, 12:42:44 PM
got some screenies coming y'all's way shortly :)
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 19, 2019, 02:13:48 PM
got some screenies coming y'all's way shortly :)

 :-*
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 19, 2019, 03:23:15 PM
Martok,

You'll need a cold shower and clean undies after reading this.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4737033
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on December 19, 2019, 03:32:45 PM
yeah, those are the exact same screenshots they sent out as a press package, so maybe we're not going to bother posting them over here, too.


seems like a wasted effort of sending them to the media outlets if they're going to post them in their own forums 90 minutes later


by the time anyone in the media can do anything with them, it'll just look like they were scraped straight out of the matrix forums
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 19, 2019, 04:01:04 PM
They did a twitch session at noon time. That's where that all came from.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 19, 2019, 07:23:54 PM
Martok,

You'll need a cold shower and clean undies after reading this.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4737033

Yeah, this definitely just shot up to the top of my "most-anticipated games" list.  Loins have definitely been moistened! 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on December 19, 2019, 08:46:59 PM
Guess I'm the only one not that thrilled with the first one. Didn't like the ship battles, the economy, space travel... or much of anything in the game really... :oh:.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 19, 2019, 09:01:34 PM
Guess I'm the only one not that thrilled with the first one. Didn't like the ship battles, the economy, space travel... or much of anything in the game really... :oh:.

Nope, those are many of the gripes that I've had.  Combat was the worst part of the game. 

The economy wasn't bad, you just had no clue as to what was going on with it and how your decisions were going to impact it. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 20, 2019, 10:06:49 AM
From Erik on the Matrix forums

Quote
   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.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 20, 2019, 02:50:29 PM
Excellent.  :bigthumb: 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 10, 2020, 07:41:41 PM
(Admins:  Any chance this thread could be moved to the 4x forum?) 



I meant to post this a few weeks ago, but Matrix has finally begun alpha-testing: 

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=4831170


Given the current time-frame, combined with how COVID has affected schedules for, well, *everything*, I'm guessing that means DW2 won't come out until 2021.  I suppose a release towards the end of this year is still possible (they've done that before with the first Distant Worlds and a couple of its expansions), but that would really be cramming things into what is typically an already-hectic holiday season. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 09, 2020, 12:35:36 AM
To pretty much no one's surprise, Erik has finally confirmed (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4737033&mpage=14&#4907869) the game won't be released in 2020. 


Quote
Hi folks,

At the start of the year, a 2020 release seemed extremely certain. While we did make very good progress this year, we are still in alpha and will not release in 2020. In December, I'll be able to reveal much more of the game and talk about our release plans in more detail.

Regards,

- Erik




Hopefully we get some more info about the gameplay and some snazzy new screenshots next month! 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on November 09, 2020, 03:13:27 AM
It's ok for me as they seem to have made a lot of progress. I am in no hurry.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Justin Penwith on November 09, 2020, 04:22:23 AM
I have been consoling myself with far too many hours in Dual Universe. Which, I might add, become my go-to game for the foreseeable future.


Justin
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 09, 2020, 11:35:48 AM
It's ok for me as they seem to have made a lot of progress. I am in no hurry.

Me neither.  As far as I'm concerned, it's simply one more to look forward to for next year(?).  And as always, there are plenty of games to play in the meantime.  :) 




I have been consoling myself with far too many hours in Dual Universe. Which, I might add, become my go-to game for the foreseeable future.


Justin

I just saw the thread about that one.  It looks almost *too* good... 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on November 23, 2020, 02:15:09 PM
I had missed the updates to this thread (someone decided to move it) and just went out to Matrix web site to see if there was any update.  Very disappointing. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 23, 2020, 07:45:08 PM
(Apologies, ojsdad.  Brant (or possibly Bawb) moved the thread here at my request.) 


Yeah, I'm also seriously bummed that DW2 won't be out until (presumably) next year.  But if it's not ready yet, then it's not ready.  Much as I hate waiting even longer for it to be released, neither do I want to play a version that's bug-ridden, overtly unbalanced, and not even remotely optimized. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 03, 2020, 06:04:04 PM
The official announcement/preview has been delayed until January. Sounds like Slitherine wanted DW2 to have more time in the limelight, and not get crowded out by all the current gaming news & info. 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4919881&mpage=1&#4919881




Erik says a bit more here, right around the 3:15:30 mark:





The two main takeaways I got are: 

1.) The game is entering beta in January.
2.) The game is confirmed for a 2021 release.


Keeping fingers crossed...!


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on December 04, 2020, 07:53:24 AM
Sounds great!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 04, 2020, 10:15:46 AM
https://twitter.com/SlitherineGames/status/1334876453868085248
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 04, 2020, 05:02:32 PM
Are you guys considering applying for the beta at all?  I've thought about it, of course, but my piece of crap computer probably wouldn't run it I'm generally not good at trying to actually "break" the game; i just want to play it.  ::) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on December 07, 2020, 03:48:41 AM
Are you guys considering applying for the beta at all?  I've thought about it, of course, but my piece of crap computer probably wouldn't run it I'm generally not good at trying to actually "break" the game; i just want to play it.  ::)
Same here. Don't think i am a good beta tester either.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 18, 2020, 11:00:38 AM
Erik posted a little teaser to tide people over until January (he said this was on a 2000-star map, by the way :D ): 


(https://i.imgur.com/5csEinf.gif)




Also:  Apparently Erik is now Matrix's CEO(?!).  He implied that it happened a while ago.  ??? 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 20, 2020, 03:22:42 PM
Looks good.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 21, 2020, 01:36:15 AM
DasTactic does a good breakdown of the clip, and how it compares/contrasts to DWU: 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on December 21, 2020, 04:40:51 AM
Would you say the space community was divided between this and stellaris?

I never played DW but this looks pretty cool
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: judgedredd on December 21, 2020, 06:39:23 AM
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.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on December 21, 2020, 06:56:42 AM
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.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bbmike on December 21, 2020, 08:17:00 AM
Me three.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 21, 2020, 08:34:23 AM
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.  :P 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on December 21, 2020, 08:43:14 AM
Are the battles abstracted or are they as involved as stellaris - I like naming the fleets and the ships for a little rpg satisfaction
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 22, 2020, 12:29:13 AM
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. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on December 22, 2020, 02:32:39 AM
Carrier battles with bombers?

Battleships that turn broadside on and release the fury?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 22, 2020, 10:01:00 AM
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. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 19, 2021, 08:58:54 PM
Panzerde said something about reloading DW:U. So I decided to relearn it.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 20, 2021, 02:38:29 AM
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...  :D 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 21, 2021, 11:52:21 PM
Looks like the "big reveal" is coming next Tuesday! 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on January 22, 2021, 02:18:38 AM
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.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 22, 2021, 09:02:38 PM
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.

I'm literally running it on Win10 right now. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 23, 2021, 10:50:18 AM
I seem to have a charmed life when it comes to older games (including Distant Worlds), as I generally can run them just fine on my machine (POS that it otherwise is). 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 23, 2021, 09:56:28 PM
I feature that Stellaris has that I really want to see in DW2 is a fleet design and build screen
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 24, 2021, 12:10:38 AM
There's a lot of features/concepts I'd love to see DW2 incorporate from other games.  :)  That being said, I agree that one would be particularly useful. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: panzerde on January 24, 2021, 12:59:33 PM
I'm cautiously optimistic about what I'm seeing for DW2. I find I'm getting back into 4X games and I'm hoping this one can keep my attention for a long while.


I just played through Endless Space 2 for the first time and the thing I enjoyed the most (other than the really great UI) was the sense of story. I don't find Stellaris (or any other Paradox game) really tells a good tale. DW:U always did, with the Galactic History, named battles, etc. Hopefully DW2 will do the same.



Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 24, 2021, 04:48:43 PM
panzerde!!  Great to see you around these parts again.  :rockon: 




I'm cautiously optimistic about what I'm seeing for DW2. I find I'm getting back into 4X games and I'm hoping this one can keep my attention for a long while.


I just played through Endless Space 2 for the first time and the thing I enjoyed the most (other than the really great UI) was the sense of story. I don't find Stellaris (or any other Paradox game) really tells a good tale. DW:U always did, with the Galactic History, named battles, etc. Hopefully DW2 will do the same.

I strongly suspect it will, yes.  Although Erik has been careful to not reveal too much about the game yet, what little he has revealed indicates that in a lot of ways, DW2 will simply be an improved version of the original game, with better accessibility, user-friendliness, etc.  I don't think they're planning any radical changes, or to reinvent the wheel. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 24, 2021, 10:03:34 PM
The second thing I'd really like to see in DW2 is a smarter ship movement AI.  It drives me nuts so see newly built ships sent from the shipyards to the fleet and take months to get there because the Ai doesn't know how to move a ship on a route that will allow it to refill.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 25, 2021, 12:05:34 AM
There needs to be better AI automation with supplies and resources in general.  It's always irked me a little when I add ships to a build queue, only to then get a message informing me "construction has stalled due to lack of X".  I'm like, then why did you let me add the ships to the queue in the first place??!  :tickedoff: 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on January 25, 2021, 04:07:50 AM
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.

I'm literally running it on Win10 right now.
I know it runs on some computers but there are quiet a few who cannot run it under windows 10. One of the problems seems to be the intro video. I did remove it on my main windows 10 laptop but the game still doesn't run. Havent' tried to disable the video on my second windows 10 laptop yet though...
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 25, 2021, 09:23:26 PM
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.

I'm literally running it on Win10 right now.
I know it runs on some computers but there are quiet a few who cannot run it under windows 10. One of the problems seems to be the intro video. I did remove it on my main windows 10 laptop but the game still doesn't run. Havent' tried to disable the video on my second windows 10 laptop yet though...

Are you using the Steam version?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on January 26, 2021, 03:22:47 AM
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.

I'm literally running it on Win10 right now.
I know it runs on some computers but there are quiet a few who cannot run it under windows 10. One of the problems seems to be the intro video. I did remove it on my main windows 10 laptop but the game still doesn't run. Havent' tried to disable the video on my second windows 10 laptop yet though...

Are you using the Steam version?
I have all versions available (cds, steam and GOG).
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 26, 2021, 10:17:25 AM
DW2 is available on Steam for adding to your wishlist.  They have the intro video and screenshots.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1531540/Distant_Worlds_2/

 :D :party: :silly:

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: panzerde on January 26, 2021, 03:18:41 PM
On my wishlist

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 26, 2021, 09:16:42 PM
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but one thing I like about Stellaris is the ability to build mega structures like habitats, ring worlds, ect.  There are even mods to add more. 

One thing I'm disappointed to see in the reveal video, is that it looks like the research model is the same as in DW:U.  I didn't think I was going to like the randomness of research options that Stellaris has I've found that I like it better than the linear model that DW has.  I really like now know what my next options are going to be. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 26, 2021, 09:23:22 PM
Ok, I now more than posted my statement about tech randomness and then they show it's an option in the video.  Much happier now!!

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 27, 2021, 03:00:23 AM
Hell.  Yes.  This looks to be everything I hoped for, and possibly even more.  I can't wait to get my grubby hands on this beast.  8) 



Incidentally, here's the (first) trailer and gameplay reveal stream: 








Erik also posted an extensive (though not comprehensive) list of changes & improvements (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=4949388) featured in Distant Worlds 2, as compared to Distant Worlds: Universe.  There's a lot of good stuff here: 

Spoiler: ShowHide
Quote

Major Improvements and changes from Distant Worlds: Universe:

- 64-bit multi-threaded 3D-based Engine and completely new architecture and code base removes previous memory limitations and performance bottlenecks, allowing large galaxies and better performance overall as well as excellent compatibility with modern hardware and operating systems.

- A vast, immersive and dramatic galactic environment rendered in 3D with ships, stations, weapon effects and animations all a major step forward from the classic 2D Distant Worlds.

- A fully scalable and re-designed User Interface, fully integrated with the map view to allow the player easy access to relevant information and much better awareness of all the activities going on in and around their systems.

- Improved AI both for AI opponents and player AI assistance and advisors

- Seven playable factions at release, each with a full 3D ship and station set as well as full animated character art: Humans, Ackdarians, Mortalen, Zenox, Boskara, Teekans and Haakonish. These were chosen from the original factions to cover a wide variety of playstyles, especially when combined with the available Government choices: Democracy, Feudalism, Republic, Monarchy, Mercantile Guild, Military Dictatorship, Technocracy, Hive Mind.

- Improved Diplomacy, including many possible first contact outcomes and more options for trade and treaties as well as tracking of diplomatic reputation by empire.

- Expanded Resource system with resources varying in rarity and luxury resources offering other bonuses beyond just colony development. Resources are also somewhat less abundant and require more effort to extract. The more rare Construction resources allow you to unlock the best technologies and components. Additionally, with access to enough of the right luxury resources, significant benefits can be gained including pushing colony development well past 100%. Resource stock levels can be automated or controlled in full at each planet at station.

- More fine-grained exploration, including sensors that in the early game can’t fully cover the width of a system. Ships may be visible but not identifiable. Unexplored systems in sensor range may show how many planets are there but require actual exploration to determine type and resources. Specific locations can now contain both what can be seen on the surface level as well as other hidden ruins or bonuses that will only be found with additional exploration (though improved scanners and better survey teams, or ongoing mining or colonization).

- Galactic nebula clouds form difficult barriers, giving natural 'geography' to the galaxy. Ships navigate around these by default because hyperjump movement inside nebula clouds is much slower and other damaging effects can occur. Hyperdrives now also have a maximum jump range for a single jump. This means traveling to distant locations often involves “star-hopping” through multiple star systems rather than just following a straight-line route. This creates additional challenges and choke-points in the galaxy.

- Expanded influence over state funding choices, allowing prioritization of maintenance and reserved income as well as bonus funding.

- More options for automation, now down to the ship role level. For example, Construction ships can be set to Full Automatic control, to Auto-Build Mining Stations or Auto-Build Research Stations or Auto-Salvage, etc. Exploration ships can Auto-Explore, Auto-Scout or Auto-Spy on Enemy systems. In addition, at the Policy level you can now choose whether your Advisors Suggest and Execute (they’ll act on the suggestion unless you tell them you disagree) or just Suggest (no action will be taken unless you explicitly agree).

- A more detailed damage model for space combat. Components can now be partially damaged but not destroyed, weapons can have bleed-through damage against both shields and armor, shields can have resistance allowing flat damage reduction as well as a chance based on the shield type to allow some damage through. Ion weapons now have specific damage against different component types, intercept weapons (point defense) now have different ratings against multiple target types and can engage seeking weapons, fighters and bombers and even direct-fire or full-length beams if they have that capability.

- Research by default is both blind (only see the next projects that link to the ones you have already researched) and has probability-based pre-requisite and fall-back paths (alternate paths to unlock projects) which means that each time you play, the Research tree can vary and the paths many not be the same. This can also be changed in the setup options to allow for full visibility and fixed paths for more predictability.

- Research bonuses now not only speed up research in a particular area, but also are required to unlock key technology threshholds to progress further in the research tree. You can gain these bonuses from research locations built at important scientific locations. For example, progressing to Fast Jump Hyperdrives now requires a 20% minimum research bonus in Hyperdrives. Research projects may also now require an initial investment of credits or resources prior to initiation.

- Ship and Base Construction will now only commence once all required resources are available. This prevents incomplete construction waiting for resources to be delivered.

- Population policies can now be set for each species at each colony.

- Independent colonies now often have unique bonuses and otherwise non-playable species and will engage in diplomacy with you for trade and possibly to join your empire. Alternately, they can be conquered and assimilated by force, but no longer will just sending a colony ship be enough to bring them to your side.

- Fleets and Armies can now have defined templates and ships within a fleet will act according to their roles in fleet engagements, with some ships attempting to form an outer perimeter while close escorts stay with the capital ships focused towards the center. Fleets now also have more tactical settings and options to help fine-tune their control and automation.

- The interface is now designed to work alongside the galaxy map. Only the ship design and research screens are full-screen. You will find that when you have a part of the interface open, let’s say a list of ships, the objects in that list will be highlighted on the map and hovering or clicking on an item in the list will “ping” the map at its location or give it an extra highlight. This makes it quick and easy to get a sense of where everything is and what it’s doing.

- Full 3D Ship Design with ship hulls that unlock up to a certain size and have a variety of component bays. Components can be placed within a matching bay and external bays, such as for weapons, are fully visible on the model when a component is placed there. Typically it is difficult to fill all slots for a particular hull, allowing for specialization choices within the maximum design size available. Ships hulls now also have a separate hull and armor rating, which can absorb some of the damage that gets past armor and shields but whic may not hit a component. Compared to Distant Worlds 1, ships are generally more durable and require more effort to destroy.

- New weapon firing and hit effects, including particle effects, to bring your custom-designed ships and 3D space battles to life!

- A new Message system with full message filtering settings as well as a complete message log and the usual alert and pop-out messages depending on the importance of the event.

- New Map Overlays for Resource Flows, Migration Flows, Tourism Flows, Location Badges (which summarize most of what you want to know about a system or planetary location at a glance) and Diplomatic Relations.

- A new Storyline which calls back to the original Distant Worlds, but with new previously unseen threats in each era of the game and more for each faction to find and explore about the lore of the Ancient era of the galaxy and the specific role of their ancestors as that history unfolded, leading to the cataclysm that destroyed the Ancient era, brought on the Age of Shadows and eventually the current era, where planetary civilizations are venturing back to the stars again.




Oh, man.  This baby can't come soon enough! 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bbmike on January 27, 2021, 07:48:44 AM
Like Crusader Kings, I'll certainly buy it. But play it?  :P
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Steelie on January 27, 2021, 10:27:38 AM
^Oh man, that one hit home!!!   :bigthumb:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on January 27, 2021, 03:39:06 PM
I seem to have a charmed life when it comes to older games (including Distant Worlds), as I generally can run them just fine on my machine (POS that it otherwise is).
Managed to make it run on my second Windows 10 laptop by disabling the intro video….but the screen is smaller on that laptop….not ideal for Distant Worlds tiny UI.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: panzerde on January 29, 2021, 01:08:27 PM
Like Crusader Kings, I'll certainly buy it. But play it?  :P


I managed to stop myself buying the new CK for exactly this reason. Now I can use that money to buy something useful, like minis I won't get around to painting.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on January 30, 2021, 12:28:11 AM
I seem to have a charmed life when it comes to older games (including Distant Worlds), as I generally can run them just fine on my machine (POS that it otherwise is).
Managed to make it run on my second Windows 10 laptop by disabling the intro video….but the screen is smaller on that laptop….not ideal for Distant Worlds tiny UI.

Gah.  Yeah, that's genuinely unfortunate. 

I'll admit, I have a hard time imagining running DWU on even a larger laptop (or at least one with a larger screen).  For me, the game's UI and font make running it on a desktop almost mandatory -- yet another reason to look forward to the sequel. 




Like Crusader Kings, I'll certainly buy it. But play it?  :P


I managed to stop myself buying the new CK for exactly this reason. Now I can use that money to buy something useful, like minis I won't get around to painting.



 :2funny:


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on February 01, 2021, 03:42:31 AM
I seem to have a charmed life when it comes to older games (including Distant Worlds), as I generally can run them just fine on my machine (POS that it otherwise is).
Managed to make it run on my second Windows 10 laptop by disabling the intro video….but the screen is smaller on that laptop….not ideal for Distant Worlds tiny UI.

Gah.  Yeah, that's genuinely unfortunate. 

I'll admit, I have a hard time imagining running DWU on even a larger laptop (or at least one with a larger screen).  For me, the game's UI and font make running it on a desktop almost mandatory -- yet another reason to look forward to the sequel. 
My main laptop has an 17' screen so this would be ok. 15' is really too small. But i do play it mainly on my old Windows 7 desktop with a 24' screen...the question is for how long.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on February 07, 2021, 02:45:29 AM
Erik stated that beta invites will be sent on monday. Keep an eye on your spam folder if you applied.
Only about 10% of all applicants will be accepted, though.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 07, 2021, 09:58:04 AM
I'm skipping the beta this time around.  I don't really have the patience to put a game through its paces and try and break it, nor am I the greatest at noticing balance issues (unless it's blatantly obvious).  And given Erik said how limited the beta slots are, it's only fair to let others who don't mind doing all that stuff (and *really* want an early peek at the game) to have their chance. 

Besides, I'm content to wait until the full game is released anyway.  :) 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 23, 2021, 05:24:40 PM
PartyElite posted a video yesterday that gives a good overview of the game.  Given he's probably one of the larger strategy-game YouTubers out there, it's nice to see DW2 getting a little more coverage. 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on February 23, 2021, 05:29:17 PM
I wasn't familiar with this youtuber. Great to see this.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 23, 2021, 07:42:06 PM
Looking good.  I like the new combat and tech research. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 23, 2021, 11:43:11 PM
I wasn't familiar with this youtuber. Great to see this.

indeed.  Now if only AngryJoe or The Spiffing Brit were to cover Distant Worlds 2, that would *really* be something! 

...Actually (now that I think about it), AngryJoe has shown off some of Slitherine's games in the past, plus lesser-known space 4x games (such as StarDrive 2).  So it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility. 




Looking good.  I like the new combat and tech research. 

As do I.  The improved battles, UI, and visuals alone almost make this game worth getting.  When you throw on top of that the epic-sized maps, storyline events for each race, advanced (and improved) automation options, plus everything else it's adding/improving, it makes for a positively salivatory experience.  :D 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on February 24, 2021, 04:44:59 AM
Yessss many hours will fade in future!  :bigthumb:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 24, 2021, 12:40:10 PM
And when they implement multiplayer......
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 24, 2021, 05:14:38 PM
Yessss many hours will fade in future!  :bigthumb:

Most definitely! 



And when they implement multiplayer......

...*If* they do.  That's a big question mark still. 

Personally, I hope they do.  For as much as I strctly stick to single-player mode in just about all my games, DW2 is one that I would actually be interested in playing online, especially with you guys (and possibly a few from Explorminate). 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on February 25, 2021, 11:21:07 AM
It seems to be coming out in July 2021.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 25, 2021, 03:40:53 PM
That would be great, but I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm still leaning towards an autumn (or even winter) release. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 25, 2021, 08:20:12 PM
I get my anniversary coupon in Dec. If DW2 is released after Halloween I'll wait until then to pick it up. A July release and I'll get it on release day.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on February 26, 2021, 01:54:20 AM
I get my anniversary coupon in Dec. If DW2 is released after Halloween I'll wait until then to pick it up. A July release and I'll get it on release day.

Same for me. 😀
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 26, 2021, 03:26:41 AM
I get my anniversary coupon in Dec. If DW2 is released after Halloween I'll wait until then to pick it up. A July release and I'll get it on release day.

It's the opposite for me.  Given my anniversary coupon arrives in August, I suppose I ought to hope for that July (or at least late summer) release.  Otherwise, I'll grab it whenever it comes out.  ;) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 27, 2021, 12:24:40 AM
The Explorminate guys did a podcast interview with Erik Rutins, mostly about the Distant Worlds series (with the occasional side discussion/commentary on Shadow Empire).  Some good info and nice little additional tidbits about DW2 get dropped: 


https://anchor.fm/explorminate/episodes/Episode-19-Our-Top-Ten-4X-Games-of-All-Time-List-er05ht



Personally, my two biggest takeaways are: 

1.)  Erik seconds what Marco said in yesterday's stream, which is that they're aiming for a summer release (although he emphasizes that this is, of course, still *very* tentative). 

2.)  He and Elliot definitely want to add multiplayer, just not at release.  Listening to him discuss the matter, I got the impression that (contrary to my expectations) MP is probably going to happen after all...eventually.  I certainly won't be sad if this turns out to be the case (and I'm proven wrong in my initial prediction on this topic).  :) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 07, 2021, 04:08:13 PM
Any new news on this.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 07, 2021, 06:38:10 PM
Not yet, no.  Matrix appears to be operating under strict radio silence at the moment regarding DW2's development and beta-testing. 

Erik commented last month that they were currently aiming for a July release, but that that could easily change (and I suspect it will -- I'm still betting on an autumn or even winter release).  Either way, I'm guessing it will be at least a month before we hear/see anything more, if only so that Matrix can avoid their promotional materials being buried under the news cycle of Nemesis' release. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 07, 2021, 08:20:00 PM

 Either way, I'm guessing it will be at least a month before we hear/see anything more, if only so that Matrix can avoid their promotional materials being buried under the news cycle of Nemesis' release.

I can understand that in some way, but I could also see making some noise to steal some od Nemesis thunder.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 08, 2021, 12:50:10 AM
Slitherine's marketing has zero chance of even beginning to compare to Paradox's hype machine.  Their efforts at this point would be wasted. 


Besides, I strongly suspect that Erik wants to keep the lid on DW2 as much as he can, and for as long as he can, until such time that DW2 is genuinely close to being ready for release.  (Though how much -- or even if -- that might influence Slitherine's marketing & media strategy for the game, I can only guess.) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 17, 2021, 04:18:22 AM
Slitherine will be airing the "Home of Wargamers 2021 Live+" on their Twitch channel May 11.  They'll be showing off all their games scheduled for release this year, including Distant Worlds 2. 


https://www.slitherine.com/news/home-of-wargamers-2021-live-is-announced



I imagine them actually announcing a release date for DW2 would be too much to hope for.  A man can still dream, though.  ;) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 18, 2021, 09:00:22 AM
Quote from: Martok
  A man can still dream, though.  ;)

You've never been married.  >:D
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 18, 2021, 04:37:03 PM
Yes, me and my foolish optimism.  :2funny: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 11, 2021, 01:19:01 PM
DW2 content starts at 2h 33m 30s mark. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 12, 2021, 05:05:09 AM
Thanks, I finished watching it about an hour ago.  This game is just looking better and better.  :bigthumb: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 12, 2021, 02:39:52 PM
As before, Slitherine was good enough to cut up the long video into segments, so here's the part that focuses on DW2: 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on June 14, 2021, 10:41:34 PM
I do wish Matrix/Slitherine would take a page from Paradox and do more regular updates.  Dev diaries etc.  Doesn't have to be every week, but some kind of regular schedule. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 15, 2021, 02:32:34 AM
I do wish Matrix/Slitherine would take a page from Paradox and do more regular updates.  Dev diaries etc.  Doesn't have to be every week, but some kind of regular schedule.

Agreed.  I understand that all things being equal, Erik & Elliot would prefer to maintain radio silence until the proverbial last minute.  However, I do think they take it too far, and that it actually hurts them more than it helps. 

M/S should be promoting a slow but steady buildup of DW2, not hiding it from the light of day until they're suddenly ready to reveal it.  The game needs -- and deserves -- far greater visibility than it's received thus far. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on June 16, 2021, 06:07:37 PM
This is at the top of my to purchase list, but it's hard to get excited when the developer/publisher don't seem to be doing anythig to promote it. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 16, 2021, 07:37:00 PM
This is at the top of my to purchase list, but it's hard to get excited when the developer/publisher don't seem to be doing anythig to promote it.

Can't say I disagree.  DW2 is #1 on my wishlist as well, but the complete lack of articles, videos, interviews/previews, etc., is absolutely maddening.  It's not just that Slitherine lacks the resources to market their games effectively, it's like they don't even know how. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 06, 2021, 04:46:12 PM
Erik Rutins has released the first dev diary (https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-dev-diary-1) for Distant Worlds 2.  (It's about bloody time...!)  It talks about their goals for the sequel, and how they redesigned the UI/UX to be more friendly this time around. 


More dev diaries are planned to be posted about every two weeks until release. 



(https://i.imgur.com/CwbNIpU.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/BwgEZwZ.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/WSvWU7q.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/FWB5qxc.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/YqDJrFB.png)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on July 06, 2021, 05:12:32 PM
It's about bloody time...!

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/381402236402-0-1/s-l1000.jpg)
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Bison on July 06, 2021, 05:51:33 PM
I’m still excited for this one to come out.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 07, 2021, 02:30:19 AM
ojsdad:  So say we all!  :rockon: 




I’m still excited for this one to come out.

Oh, me too.  For as frustratingly parsimonious as Matrix/Slitherine has been about releasing info/details regarding DW2, no other game coming out in the next 18 months has me salivating to this degree.  Not even the Master of Magic remake has me this pumped (although it's within spitting distance). 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 10, 2021, 12:22:35 AM
Marco spends about 10 minutes talking about Distant Worlds 2 (starts around the 4:40 mark).  Sounds like the media/hype build-up is finally kicking into gear. 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 12, 2021, 03:44:18 AM
Okay, I thought this was pretty damn cool...  While responding to a couple queries/comments on the dev diary, Erik made this comment (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=5047431): 


Quote
I'm glad someone noticed the new camera angles. You can rotate freely on the horizontal plane. The angle you look down at depends on choosing one of the preset angles, ranging from top down, high angle, medium angle (the default), low angle, bridge view (you are "in" the selected ship), trailing view (you are just "behind" the selected ship).




So in essence, it sounds like you'll be able to switch to a couple different camera angles allowing you a birds-eye view of the action, thus taking the notion of roleplaying an admiral/captain/etc. up a big notch.  From a practical standpoint, it might not be a feature I'd use a lot, but it would be absolutely amazing from an immersion standpoint. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 12, 2021, 03:54:58 AM
There is a new game coming out which at last puts you in charge of a capital ship controlling all the different sectors of the ship and the different weapon systems which sounds cool - but not as much as this addition you mention
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 29, 2021, 02:36:21 AM
Holy hand grenades, Slitherine drives me f***ing insane with how they promote -- and release information for -- their games:  After over a week of waiting -- and no communication whatsoever until a few of us started nagging -- it was finally mentioned that the next dev diary won't even be released until a full month after the first one: 


http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=5055701



Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go bash my head against a wall. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on July 29, 2021, 09:23:23 AM
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go bash my head against a wall.

c'mon now, the wall doesn't deserve that!  :peace:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on July 29, 2021, 09:42:22 AM
Holy hand grenades, Slitherine drives me f***ing insane with how they promote -- and release information for -- their games:  After over a week of waiting -- and no communication whatsoever until a few of us started nagging -- it was finally mentioned that the next dev diary won't even be released until a full month after the first one: 


http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=5055701



Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go bash my head against a wall.

I'll join you at the wall.

Seriously, looking at what Paradox is doing Victoria 3, and all their titles, you can pretty much you all of the Dev DIaries and videos as the game manual and have a good understanding how to play the game before it installs on your PC.  I'm not getting that from DW3.  And as you pointed out, they're killing their own hype.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 29, 2021, 05:53:19 PM
c'mon now, the wall doesn't deserve that!  :peace:

You don't know what the wall has done.  :censored: 




And as you pointed out, they're killing their own hype.

You can't kill what doesn't exist in the first place.  Therein lies the problem. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 04, 2021, 09:16:43 AM
New trailer


[/youtube]
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 04, 2021, 06:19:11 PM
New dev diary as well (finally): 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-dev-diary-2



In (grudging) fairness, it's a good read.  The dev diary talks about story elements & events, and how each race/faction has its own storyline in addition to the main galactic storyline.  It sounds like these faction-specific stories (if enabled -- you can choose to turn them off) will count towards your victory conditions, which strongly appeals to me. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on August 04, 2021, 07:09:20 PM
Have they said anything about ships in combat? Is still just a big mosh pit or will stand off ships actually stand off? Can you have pickets guarding carriers/battleships?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 04, 2021, 07:38:08 PM
Have they said anything about ships in combat? Is still just a big mosh pit or will stand off ships actually stand off? Can you have pickets guarding carriers/battleships?

I'm not sure about your last question, but the "mosh pit" seems to have been effectively done away with in the sequel.  Check out the video below for an example of space battles in DW2 (the actual combat begins around the 1:50 mark). 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on August 04, 2021, 07:49:18 PM
Yeah, I’m still seeing cruisers moving into point blank range with everything else…. :idiot2:
The fighters and bombers seem to be acting well and point defence weapons look good.
But larger ships should “sit” back, and watch as the frigates and destroyers battle it out, while firing at long range …
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 04, 2021, 09:03:58 PM
Yeah, I’m still seeing cruisers moving into point blank range with everything else…. :idiot2:
The fighters and bombers seem to be acting well and point defence weapons look good.
But larger ships should “sit” back, and watch as the frigates and destroyers battle it out, while firing at long range …

I’m as hopeful as you that that’s not a problem anymore

Maybe it depends what the cruisers are armed with 🤷‍♂️
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 05, 2021, 12:26:11 AM
Yeah, I suspect it really depends on what a ship's weapons loadout is.  I have a hunch that in DW2, if you designed & built a missile cruiser, it actually will do its best to keep at standoff range. 


In addition, Erik does mention during the battle that the ships in the Mortalen fleet are equipped with a good amount of short-range weaponry, along with the engines to get them in close.  So it was likely their (the AI's) battle plan from the start to get in a scrum with the Ackdarians, thus offsetting the latter's range advantage. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 05, 2021, 06:44:11 AM
I have next game money burning a hole in my pocket - I can buy the rest of the stellaris dlc or wait for dw2 - I hope it’s not far away
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 06, 2021, 01:21:09 AM
I forget which video where it was mentioned (it was from a few weeks ago), but Marco said DW2 will probably be coming out in October.  He was careful to emphasize that wasn't 100% locked in yet, but it's looking extremely likely. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 06, 2021, 05:22:40 AM
That’s doable!

I’ll end up buying everything anyway I just like to imagine I have game restraint
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 06, 2021, 09:01:46 AM
Crap, if it's Oct that'll be a toss up if I buy day 1 or wait until beginning of Dec when I have my Matrix coupon. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 06, 2021, 09:35:38 AM
I have the opposite problem:  My Matrix anniversary is in August, which means my coupon will likely expire *just* before I can use it for Distant Worlds 2.  :( 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on August 06, 2021, 12:46:35 PM
I have the opposite problem:  My Matrix anniversary is in August, which means my coupon will likely expire *just* before I can use it for Distant Worlds 2.  :(

Same boat here…
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 06, 2021, 05:18:26 PM
I get to use mine with the yearly holiday sale.  :biggrin:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 06, 2021, 07:38:55 PM
Rub some salt in with that lemon juice while you're at it...  :nope: 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Bison on August 06, 2021, 08:13:03 PM
I though Matrix always exempted new release from discounts.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 06, 2021, 09:52:14 PM
Generally, that is indeed the case.  The anniversary coupon is an exception, however. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bbmike on August 07, 2021, 08:31:38 AM
All of this anniversary coupon talk made me go and dig through my spam box. Sure enough, there was a Matrix anniversary coupon in there just about to expire! So I snagged a copy of Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2.
Thanks guys!  :bigthumb:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 07, 2021, 01:44:49 PM
Glad we could be of help Mike
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 07, 2021, 04:25:51 PM
All of this anniversary coupon talk made me go and dig through my spam box. Sure enough, there was a Matrix anniversary coupon in there just about to expire! So I snagged a copy of Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2.
Thanks guys!  :bigthumb:

You're welcome.  :biggrin: 

I've been seriously contemplating using my coupon for WITE2 as well (once I get it later this month), especially if/since I won't be able to use it for DW2 anyway.  It would still be *stupid*, but when has that ever stopped me?  ::) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2[quote author=ojsdad link=topic=3261.msg75600#msg75600 date=
Post by: Martok on August 12, 2021, 12:53:50 AM
(From the Victoria 3 thread -- I didn't want to derail it any further...) 



I think we may be lucky to see DW2 in Dec.

What makes you say that?  Anything in particular? 

If DW2 does get delayed -- yet again -- until December, then Slitherine might as well hold off on releasing the game until next year after all.  Not much point in dropping the game right at the end of the holiday season when everyone else has just released their big games as well -- DW2 will be completely buried and/or forgotten. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 14, 2021, 09:30:52 PM
Just their lack of hype. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Bison on August 14, 2021, 10:39:32 PM
I tend to agree with OJ assessment but I think next year. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 25, 2021, 02:32:02 PM
Dev Diary #3 talks about how the game uses procedural rendering to generate the planets, nebula, etc. in each game.  This contrasts with the hand-drawn artwork that was used in Distant Worlds: Universe, and the dev diary looks at the advantages of the former versus the latter. 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-dev-diary-3



A bit of a dry topic, perhaps, but I still appreciated Elliot sharing a sliver of his thoughts.  He so rarely posted even during development of DW1, and barely at all while he's been working on DW2, so it's interesting to to get even just a glimpse of his thought processes. 



Also: screenshots.  8) 


(https://i.imgur.com/Ceh7XXE.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/rvSlyWp.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/N2AITFx.jpg)


(https://i.imgur.com/rQeRWT5.jpg)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on August 25, 2021, 02:43:49 PM
That looks impressive,
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 26, 2021, 12:28:44 AM
Yeah, they're light-years beyond the planets in the first game, or even most other 4x games in general, for that matter. 


More than anything, though, I'm still just blown away by the sheer *scale* of things in DW2:  Ships are dwarfed by stations, stations are in turn dwarfed by planets, planets & moons are actually a decent distance away from from both their parent star and each other now (if still not to a truly realistic scale), etc.  That alone provides a strong sense of immersion, which I can't wait to dive into!  :waiting: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on September 15, 2021, 12:10:40 AM
The latest dev diary talks about adding "terrain" and how it affects space travel in DW2... 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-dev-diary-4




The main takeaways appear to be: 

1.)  The free/open travel from the first game remains, but nebulae and space "storms" will now generally force (or at least strongly encourage) you to navigate around them. 

2.)  This, in turn, will often require multiple jumps to reach your destination, especially since... 

3.)  Your jump range is now generally shorter than your fuel range. 

4.)  All of these things in combination means that star systems in DW2 can be important for their strategic location. 



On another note, I'm really digging the ship models shown in the screenshots.  There's no question they've got a bigger art budget this time around.  :D 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on September 15, 2021, 07:39:38 PM

3.)  Your jump range is now generally shorter than your fuel range. 


I really hope this means that the AI will not send my ships from point A to point B with no hope of getting there before they run out of fuel. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on September 15, 2021, 09:00:38 PM
Yeah, me too.  Erik has said the AI in DW2 is vastly improved over that in DW:U, including/especially how it handles ship operations.  Fingers crossed! 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 09, 2021, 05:14:43 AM
Dev Diary #5 (finally) tackles a meatier subject, one that's dear to most fans of 4x games - exploration: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-dev-diary-5



In general, it appears exploration in DW2 will be a more interactive affair, where player engagement both matters more and is encouraged.  The same content is there that was in Distant Worlds: Universe (except, of course, there's quite a bit more of it this time around 8) ), but the discoveries you make during the course of the game shouldn't feel as automatic or dull. 


In addition, there are now multiple exploration "levels" an astronomical body (planet, asteroid, etc.) can have.  It looks like these levels will depend both on your sensor levels, and (to some extent) how long you've had sensors in that system.  This means that: 

1.)  It's unlikely you'll immediately obtain complete information on a planet, moon, etc. just  because you've finished scanning/surveying it. 
2.)  It's possible to continue making discoveries about said planets & asteroids well into the game, even after you've settled and/or thoroughly explored a star system.  Thus, the exploration phase of the game gets extended beyond what one sees in most 4x titles. 


There's other interesting stuff in the dev diary (seriously, I honestly recommend checking it out), but I'd say those are more-or-less the highlights.  :) 




(https://i.imgur.com/Gw8gmei.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/wRbacSV.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/aZFpbrQ.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/S6CqjlG.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/3FewZ0I.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/TTX7PXr.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/PD7fbX9.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/2MXd6vd.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/cho1Yju.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/79ZU4RQ.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/BWWt0s6.jpg)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 09, 2021, 09:25:41 PM
And still no release date.   :waiting:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 09, 2021, 11:25:39 PM
And still no release date.   :waiting:

Sigh, yeah. 


I mean, I think we can now safely rule out the game coming out in October, especially given Erik's comments in this thread (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=5085453) -- although in reality, that merely further solidifies everyone's suspicions of a delay. 


Marco did comment in this past Thursday's Tea-Time video (https://youtu.be/e-ZeHfl8Afw?t=1201) (the relevant portion starts around 20:00) that they will give out "more information" next week about the release date for Distant Worlds 2. 

Whether that includes an actual, specific release date, however, remains to be seen.  At this point, I'm equally parts hopeful, yet skeptical. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on October 11, 2021, 10:22:21 AM
And still no release date.   :waiting:

Maybe it's floating off of Long Beach.

 ;)
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 11, 2021, 03:01:48 PM
I do like the sound of the exploration system. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 12, 2021, 10:26:37 AM
Posted this morning by Erik.

"Just to be clear, they will be discussing the release this Thursday, beyond that nothing has been promised."
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 12, 2021, 07:42:37 PM
... 


I have no words right now. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 14, 2021, 11:02:17 AM
 :censored:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 14, 2021, 11:29:40 PM
Yeah.  >:(  Here's the announcement in the forums: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5088249&mpage=1&#5088249




And Marco makes the announcement (around 26:00) in the tea-time video: 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 14, 2021, 11:33:19 PM
Honestly, this would be/would've been a lot less frustrating if they'd simply told us a month or two ago, "Sorry folks, but it looks like DW2 is going to slip to 2022 after all."  It's the constant under-communication (and/or lack of communication entirely) from Slitherine/Matrix that's so damn aggravating. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on October 15, 2021, 03:00:45 AM
Just applied for the new wave of beta testers....
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 15, 2021, 04:07:45 AM
Cheers, Anguille!   I've actually applied as well this time around.  I figure the game is far enough along at this point that any feedback from me can't screw it up.  ::) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on October 15, 2021, 04:19:49 AM
Cheers, Anguille!   I've actually applied as well this time around.  I figure the game is far enough along at this point that any feedback from me can't screw it up.  ::)
Was thinking the same... :whistle:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 15, 2021, 01:10:54 PM
Just applied for the new wave of beta testers....

Ditto. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 09, 2021, 09:14:04 PM
Dev Diary #6 examines one of the main features of the Distant Worlds series -- the economy, and the game's private economy in particular: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-dev-diary-6




For those of us who are familiar with the first game, it appears as if there won't be much radically different in the way the economy operates.  However, it should be a good deal easier to make use of and understand (thanks to the improved UI/UX) -- along with looking much better, of course. 


(https://i.imgur.com/kJbDYGz.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/AlCWaXZ.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/EV6CNtD.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/ry2hx7c.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/NpOQL1a.png)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 24, 2021, 04:26:09 AM
I wonder if this is effectively Dev Diary #7:  Explorminate's Benjamin Halford (BATTLEMODE on their forums and Discord) got an exclusive look at the game's research & technology system... 


https://explorminate.co/an-exclusive-research-in-distant-worlds-2/




It appears it's going to be a fairly major upgrade/revamp over what was in DW:U, at least under the hood, although the basic research screen still looks much the same as before.  (If anything, that's one thing I have a concern about -- it look as if there might not be scalable text, which was an issue with the previous game, as it made it difficult for some players to read technologies and their descriptions.)  Still, there are some genuinely interesting changes/features being added. 


Some highlights (though definitely not all -- the full article is definitely worth reading): 

-  The tech tree is now "hidden" beyond a certain point past your current technology level, adding an element of uncertainty to that part of the game. 

-  The tech tree can be randomized (this option is chosen at game start) players who prefer a less predictable research path, and/or enjoy "exploring" the technology tree (ala Stellaris). 

-  There are also now repeatable techs, so that research doesn't suddenly become a dead-end in the late game, but remains useful throughout. 

-  The three separate research trees from the first game have been combined into a single tree in DW2, though players retain the ability to research multiple techs/projects simultaneously. 

-  When making first contact with an alien race, you now gain access to "diplomatic technologies" which will allow you to better make friends with them (even the usually-unpleasant insectoid species!). 

-  The technology tree in general has been greatly expanded -- even with now being a single field, it's still significantly larger than DW:U's original three tech trees combined. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on November 24, 2021, 02:39:41 PM
That sounds good on the research changes.

I will admit though, I really like the random options for research options in Stellaris.  So I will be using random research setting in DW2. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on November 24, 2021, 02:59:28 PM
WOW!!  DW:U is on sale during the Matrix Holiday sale for $6.  That's 90% off. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 24, 2021, 03:37:41 PM
I will admit though, I really like the random options for research options in Stellaris.  So I will be using random research setting in DW2.

Same here, for sure.  After experiencing Stellaris' research system the last 4-5 years, it's hard to imagine going back to a predetermined tech tree. 




WOW!!  DW:U is on sale during the Matrix Holiday sale for $6.  That's 90% off. 

Well it's not likely that they're selling many copies at the $60.00 price, especially with the sequel coming out in a few months.  ;D 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 30, 2021, 08:04:03 PM
A couple new previews... 


https://www.gamewatcher.com/interviews/distant-worlds-2-interview/13306


https://www.pcgamesn.com/distant-worlds-2/engine-tech




I'm not seeing a whole lot of new information overall, although there are a few crumbs: The first article talks about pirates and independent colonies in a bit more detail, for insance.  In addition, it mentions DW2 has a new feature, Debris Salvaging -- from the description, it sounds somewhat similar to Stellaris' mechanic of being able to dispatch a Scientist commanding a science vessel to research battle debris. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 13, 2021, 03:08:56 PM
Some official news coming tomorrow.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on December 13, 2021, 03:29:04 PM
Some official news coming tomorrow.

‘Surprise!!!!! It’s out tomorrow’
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 14, 2021, 12:24:42 AM
Heh, that would indeed be a surprise.  However, at this point I'd be happy just getting a firm release date.  (Although I wouldn't mind more actual info as well.)  ::) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 14, 2021, 09:24:00 AM
RELEASE DATE

10 MARCH 2022


 :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party: :party:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on December 14, 2021, 09:41:35 AM
I’ll take that - that’s not too bad at all
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on December 14, 2021, 10:35:30 AM
Sounds good to me
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 14, 2021, 03:52:19 PM
Thank goodness. 

I've been about ready to lose my mind with the lack of news/info.  I know it would be hilariously naive of me to hope for more, now that a release date has finally been announced -- and yet I hope for it anyway.  I'm greedy, I know.  ::) 



Incidentally, the actual announcement starts at around the 32:35 mark for anyone who's curious: 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on December 14, 2021, 06:12:02 PM
Incidentally, the actual announcement starts at around the 32:35 mark for anyone who's curious: 


Just don't blink, or you'll miss it. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 14, 2021, 08:40:01 PM
Yeah, it's only a 40-second (or so) teaser.  I'm surprised they didn't post a separate video of it on YouTube; lord knows they did for every other announcement and bit of game footage.  ::) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 15, 2021, 04:34:24 PM
Official announcement is now up: 







Marco also talks about DW2 a little in today's Tea Time video, starting around the 5:25 mark.  Sounds like the game's release was delayed at the proverbial last minute due to (possibly unexpected?) issues brought up by some of the beta-testers. 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on December 22, 2021, 05:41:35 PM
This preview takes a closer look at the game's diplomacy... 


https://www.aroged.com/2021/12/15/distant-worlds-2-space-embassies-in-slitherines-new-4x-strategy/




Bits that particularly stuck out for me: 

1.)  Ambassadors will be even more important for establishing & maintaining strong relations with those empires you want to be on good terms with. 

1a.)  Ambassadors with good Espionage skills are especially useful to send, even when it's a friend/ally. 

2.)  Researching technologies for improving relations with specific empires (that have been mentioned in previous articles) are also going to be major factor. 

3.)  Diplomacy with pirates should be more meaningful, or at least useful, than in DW:U. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on January 31, 2022, 03:34:52 PM
Per Erik, pre orders coming in Feb (no date) and pricing will be announced then. Will be available via Matrix or Steam. More money to the devs when going through Matrix, though Steam code will be provided.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on February 01, 2022, 03:01:48 AM
Thanks to my Humble Bundle discount I can currently get it for £23. Very tempting...
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bbmike on February 01, 2022, 09:38:29 AM
Helping out Martok with the updates, hope he's back soon.

DasTactic has released a preview video. He says it releases on March 10:



Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on February 01, 2022, 11:22:44 AM
Hands on by RPS too

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/weve-now-played-distant-worlds-2-and-its-a-light-in-an-age-of-shadow
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 01, 2022, 03:48:53 PM
Thanks to my Humble Bundle discount I can currently get it for £23. Very tempting...

I think your looking at Distant Worlds, not Distant Worlds 2, as DW2 pricing hasn't been released yet.  Looking at HB website, they only have DW, not DW2. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on February 01, 2022, 04:49:29 PM
Nope, apparently it was a mistake and they'd put it up too early. It isn't there now but it certainly was before, and I bought it. :)
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 06, 2022, 05:07:18 PM
I will admit, I've been pleasantly surprised at the media blitz Slitherine has suddenly been putting on these last couple couple of weeks.  The number of previews, Twitch streams, and YouTube LP's showing off DW2 has been great to see.  Fingers crossed it's enough to raise the game's profile higher than its predecessor, and that it gets significantly more attention this time around. 




Nope, apparently it was a mistake and they'd put it up too early. It isn't there now but it certainly was before, and I bought it. :)

Yeah, I noticed that as well.  Nice!  Might as well take advantage if you can.  :bigthumb: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 10, 2022, 02:42:16 PM
List price on Steam if $50.  It is currently on sale for pre-order at $44.99. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 10, 2022, 08:33:49 PM
That must have been an error on Steam, because I'm showing their pre-order price is $44.99 USD, same as on the Matrix/Slitherine store.  I do see the pre-order price on GOG is $49.99, although goodness knows whether or not that's also correct or a goof. 


Oh, and of course, I did go ahead and pre-order this one (through the M/S storefront).  It's my first time pre-ordering in over a decade.  Fingers crossed it goes better than the last time I did this! 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 10, 2022, 10:03:05 PM
I'm not following Martok, Steam and S/M are the same prices. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 10, 2022, 11:49:04 PM
Yeah, never mind.  I just realized I misread/misunderstood your previous post. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a hole to go dig... 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 11, 2022, 12:41:38 PM
Dang youngins screwing with my Baldtymers!!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on February 13, 2022, 11:04:22 AM
https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/reviews/first-impressions-of-distant-worlds-2-by-matrix-games/
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 13, 2022, 02:35:39 PM
Nice preview, ojsdad.  :bigthumb: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on February 13, 2022, 03:35:29 PM
It is

Also watching a live play through on YT - having not played the first one I’m really excited about the immersion of things like not just having a status bar at the top that says 1000 metal 1000 food - you’ve actually got to move the stuff about to benefit from it - stuff like that - management sim lite plus 4x and shooty stuff could see me disappear down a dw2 rabbit hole for ages
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 13, 2022, 07:48:16 PM
Thank you gentlemen. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 06, 2022, 09:06:30 AM
BTW, DW2 is queued in my Steam downloads and awaiting release
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 07, 2022, 08:28:28 AM
Sigh... I'm in too... pre-purchased through GMG at 28% discount.  :silly:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 07, 2022, 04:05:28 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/N7QtutZ.png)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 10, 2022, 03:03:03 AM
Oof, I've been reading quite a few reports of crashes and apparently it even crashed during the pre-launch stream yesterday. Let's hope the game has a robust auto-save feature!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 10, 2022, 06:24:09 AM
No crashes for me so far; maybe I'm lucky?  I've come across a couple minor bugs, but my biggest complaints to this point are various UI/QoL issues. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on March 10, 2022, 07:43:05 AM
No crashes for me so far; maybe I'm lucky?  I've come across a couple minor bugs, but my biggest complaints to this point are various UI/QoL issues.
How long have you been able to play it?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 10, 2022, 08:06:06 AM
Unlocks at 3pm here - it’s 13:05 - I’m waiting
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 10, 2022, 09:06:17 AM
Got my key from Green Man Gaming just now. Downloading as we speak.  :bigthumb:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 10, 2022, 09:38:25 AM
Released on Steam! Go go go!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 10, 2022, 10:06:12 AM
First aid course  :tickedoff:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on March 10, 2022, 10:20:17 AM
Also available on GOG.  :hug:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 10, 2022, 11:18:20 AM
downloading
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 10, 2022, 11:38:38 AM
First aid course  :tickedoff:

Pfft. I'm about to go away until Monday! At least you'll have the weekend!

Enjoy everyone. I'll be getting my thrills vicariously through you lot while I'm away so post often! :D
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on March 10, 2022, 12:18:15 PM
Distant Worlds 2 will have to wait...it barely runs on my gaming computer.... :tickedoff:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 10, 2022, 12:27:56 PM
And I ran into resolution problems.  :doh:
Had to reset by deleting some files. Now it runs but not at my screen resolution.... :waiting:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 10, 2022, 06:41:18 PM
A surprisingly decent launch trailer.  Kudos again to Slitherine for stepping up their game. 







DasTactic has also put out a primer video for new players: 





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 10, 2022, 06:46:59 PM
Yeah, there are tons of folks reporting technical issues, both in the M/S forums and Steam forums.  Can't tell if it's especially bad, however, or if this is more or less the "normal" amount you'd inevitably expect from a new release. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 10, 2022, 07:41:55 PM
I became convinced long ago that Matrix purposefully releases flawed games on day one to thwart pirates. Then they release a Day 1 patch that you can only get through their system, and now Steam.... :whistle: But maybe I'm old and paranoid....

Anyway it turns out the resolution thing can be fixed by a switch inside Windows.  :bigthumb:

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 10, 2022, 10:20:28 PM
A couple of quick thoughts;

1.  In DW:U there was a screen you could use to queue up the building of multiple ships.  I'm not finding that here in DW2.  You have to select a construction yard and click the ship want to build, that many times.
2.  Why is there still no fleet build/design screen.
3.  I haven't found a way to transfer a ship from one fleet to another.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 11, 2022, 09:17:23 AM
A couple of quick thoughts;

1.  In DW:U there was a screen you could use to queue up the building of multiple ships.  I'm not finding that here in DW2.  You have to select a construction yard and click the ship want to build, that many times.
2.  Why is there still no fleet build/design screen.
3.  I haven't found a way to transfer a ship from one fleet to another.

2. There is a fleet design screen. Take the "Military" tour and it will show you how to get there. It lets you define what types of ships and number you want in the fleet and how the fleet acts. If all that is what you meant...
 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 11, 2022, 03:37:49 PM
A couple of quick thoughts;

1.  In DW:U there was a screen you could use to queue up the building of multiple ships.  I'm not finding that here in DW2.  You have to select a construction yard and click the ship want to build, that many times.
2.  Why is there still no fleet build/design screen.
3.  I haven't found a way to transfer a ship from one fleet to another.

2. There is a fleet design screen. Take the "Military" tour and it will show you how to get there. It lets you define what types of ships and number you want in the fleet and how the fleet acts. If all that is what you meant...

Yep, that's what I was looking for.  Was looking in the wrong spot. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Bison on March 11, 2022, 06:06:29 PM
I am looking forward to eventually playing this game as I think DW is one of the best 4X games ever. However, I still need to play Stellaris some more and want to give this one post-release time for the usual patching process. What I am really hoping long-term is the game is accessible for modders to do their work.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 11, 2022, 07:19:14 PM
I think I have to admit that playing Stellaris these past 5+ years has spoiled me:  I'm used to a certain level of polish, and a certain level of ease & functionality from game UI/UX, that Distant Worlds 2 simply doesn't have.  I know a lot of aspects of DW2 will improve with time, but man it's gonna be hard waiting for that to happen. 

At least I've been fortunate enough to not run into any CTD'S or other major technical problems so far, unlike so many others.  I do find myself frequently annoyed with minor issues:  For instance, I hate the auto-unpause "feature" (and that there's apparently no way for me to change that), or the fact that I can no longer queue up manual orders for ships (like I could in DW:U), or (to share one of ojsdad's frustrations) that there doesn't appear to be a single screen from which I can order X number of Z ship type to be built, and instead I have to go a specific facility and manually queue some up. 


Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely still enjoying the game overall, and I know it will only improve.  But I'm quickly realizing/remembering what a world of difference different publishers can make. 




What I am really hoping long-term is the game is accessible for modders to do their work.

You and me both, Bison.  :peace: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 11, 2022, 07:48:18 PM
I booted it up, made sure it works, spent 10 mins with it and switched it off - it needs way more than oooo I’ll have a look at this for a bit - need a proper sit down on a day off
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 11, 2022, 10:40:17 PM
Additional gripes (in no particular order): 

-  Why does double mouse-click not work to save/load games?  This has been standard for years now. 

-  You cannot pause and save the game when you get certain messages (such as finding an ancient crashed ship on Planet X).  If you don't decide what to do *right that moment*, you'll never be able to go back to that popup message and revisit/change your decision...or even make one at all. 

-  Zooming in on planets brings up this repeated -- and to my ears, annoying -- percussion riff that overrides the soundtrack (which, while not fantastic, is definitely better than in DW:U).  The riff only seems to go away when you zoom out...which kind of defeats the purpose of being able to zoom in and watch your ships flying around doing stuff. 

-  In the "Settings" menu, any changes you make are automatically applied, regardless of whether you clicked "Apply" or "Cancel". 

-  Unlike in DW:U, I can no longer take a Constructor ship and order it build a base on a planet/moon by right-clicking on it.  Why has this beautifully simple functionality been removed in the sequel? 

-  Unlike in DW:U, I can no longer zoom in on ships that are transiting between celestial bodies, unless they've temporarily dropped to sub-light speed (they can only be viewed as icons while in "flight").  Granted, this function is less essential, but I'm baffled as to why it was dropped in the first place. 


Again, all minor stuff, and most (hopefully all) of them can be fixed/addressed easily enough in time.  But it is a bit frustrating that none of these things were caught/dealt with during the alpha/beta period. 




I booted it up, made sure it works, spent 10 mins with it and switched it off - it needs way more than oooo I’ll have a look at this for a bit - need a proper sit down on a day off

Yes, indeed.  Like its predecessor, DW2 is not a game you just casually fire up for a bit here and there.  It requires, if not demands, almost as much of a commitment as Shadow Empire.  :P 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 12, 2022, 12:05:09 AM
Looking at the martok approved gripes (tm) I think I’ll be ok - having never played the first I’ll miss out on all the dw:u used to do this

As for Shadow Empire - the one more turn factor particularly with pbem is horrendous - I got out of bed twice the other night to return huw’s turns with ‘have the supplies got through’ ‘did the build complete’ anxiety
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 12, 2022, 07:30:34 AM
Looks like the first patch as dropped.  Mostly crash fixes.

Quote
Changes in the 1.0.1.6 Update:

- Fixed crash that sometimes happens when have many game controllers and other devices
- Fixed User Interface Size showing options that are invalid for the current screen resolution
- Improved handling of High DPI settings in Windows
- Added settings to ensure NVidia video cards run in high performance mode - should fix a number of crashes and performance problems
- Fixed rare crash when moving characters via dropdown list in Character screen
- Fixed rare rendering crash
- Fixed rare crash when ship design could not be found when updating render data
- Improved performance at location level when many ships and lots of running lights
- Fixed bug in Start New Game screen where could select race-specific government types when select random race
- No longer prevent construction ships from carrying out base-building when waiting for response on advisor suggestions for repairing abandoned ships or bases
- Hooked up instability and unhappiness after a government change, leader loss, etc ('Have Revolution' button)
- Construction ships no longer feel tempted to repair fighters
- Fixed bug in some game events that was causing loss of a colony
- Fixed wrong tooltip text on buttons in Character Detail screen for captured prisoners
- Further fixes to crashes after lengthy play sessions
- Further improvements to performance by making sure GPU runs at maximum performance instead of sometimes using power-saving mode
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 12, 2022, 07:46:11 AM
(to share one of ojsdad's frustrations) that there doesn't appear to be a single screen from which I can order X number of Z ship type to be built, and instead I have to go a specific facility and manually queue some up. 

Found it!  Top right of the screenshot with the green box around it

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 12, 2022, 07:48:37 AM
Fleet management is found here, yellow box.  There is no tooltip for it.  The box below it for army management, which does have a tooltip.  When you go into the fleet management screen, I'm not sure you can assign more than one class of each ship type.  So if you have two different destroyer designs, one gun and one missile, it looks like you can only pick one. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 12, 2022, 01:21:05 PM
(to share one of ojsdad's frustrations) that there doesn't appear to be a single screen from which I can order X number of Z ship type to be built, and instead I have to go a specific facility and manually queue some up. 

Found it!  Top right of the screenshot with the green box around it

This doesn't seem to be working at all.  I've tried it a couple of times, but no ships seem to be getting queued up. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 12, 2022, 07:55:14 PM
It also looks like you cannot change the fleet home. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 13, 2022, 05:56:14 PM
So I'm at the point where I can't continue playing the game for the time being.  I know it sounds stupid, but that looping percussion riff I was complaining about (whenever I'm zoomed in on planets) is persistently giving me headaches.  Gonna have to set this aside until that gets fixed, I think. 


It's a pity, because for all its current bugs, flaws, etc., DW2 is still fun to play.  It captures that "living galaxy" feel like no other 4x game can, or has (except for perhaps its predecessor).  I love watching my industry slowly expand across my home system, and seeing the little civilian vessels (freighters, mining ships, etc.) zip around.  Building your first mining/research base on another planet (even when it's still in your home system) feels like a major accomplishment.  Pirates are actually interesting & worthwhile to interact with, and feel like their own entities within the universe. 

This game is going to be a real gem once Elliot & Erik get some of the kinks worked out.  But until that damned percussion riff goes away, I'm unfortunately going to have to take a break from this for now. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 13, 2022, 08:25:58 PM
I don't think I noticed the riff your talking about. I'm playing humans, could it be race related. I also turned down the music in settings.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 13, 2022, 09:46:00 PM
I've encountered this riff playing as the Zenox, Ackdarians, and Teekans so far.  And those are the three races I'm most interested in playing (that are currently available). 

i actually like the soundtrack overall.  It's nothing amazing, but it generally feels nice and "spacey"; and it's undeniably an improvement over the music in DW:U (although that's a low bar to clear IMO).  I don't want to turn down the soundtrack volume; I just want that dang percussion riff to disappear, or at lest not be incessantly looping whenever I'm zoomed in on a planet/moon. 


(Incidentally, I'm guessing the riff is supposed to elicit the sense/sounds of industry?  That's sort of the impression I get, at any rate.) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: judgedredd on March 14, 2022, 06:21:21 AM
I'm not 100% sure it's the same thing as you're describing, but the previous game had a noise that played as you zoomed into a planet....kind of like a humming noise iirc.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on March 14, 2022, 07:08:27 AM
If it's a feature, then you should maybe write a request that this could be turned off?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 14, 2022, 02:36:41 PM
Martok - much respect to you for being honest.

Yeah, from what I've been reading here and elsewhere this game sounds like it could've used at least another few months in the oven. I guess that's Matrix/Slitherine for you. And shame on me for pre-ordering; I rarely break that rule but thought DW2 would be a safe bet.

Oh well, I'm back from holiday so I'll give it a try tonight anyway.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on March 14, 2022, 03:51:48 PM
OK, so who's on the podcast tomorrow night talking about first impressions?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 15, 2022, 12:48:42 AM
Another patch (1.0.1.9) dropped today: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-latest-update-1019

Spoiler: ShowHide

Changes in the 1.0.1.9 Build:

DISPLAY AND RENDERING
- fixed faulty display resolution detection at game start
- improved resolution of correct display adapter when specific adapter requested
- disabled fixed timestep updates (higher FPS)
- allow toggling on-screen FPS and other rendering data using shift-Tilde (top-left corner of most keyboards), which allows seeing which display adapter is being used
CRASH AND HANG FIXES
- fixed crash when empire has revolution and changes government
- fixed hang where fighters at colonies would lock up when their parent colony was wiped out
- fixed hang where exploration ship attempts to explore a location that has nebula sensor disablement that exceeds its scan power
EXPLORATION
- asteroids are now explored much quicker than planets, moons or stars (for both scan and survey)
- ensure all necessary resources in prewarp home system are discoverable at initial tech levels, even when already present
DIPLOMACY
- reduced envy factor in diplomacy when have positive diplomatic strategy for other faction ('We are envious of your huge strength and power')
- envy factor in diplomacy now grows more gradually
OTHER
- more careful about evaluating systems inside nebulae and related logic
- rebalanced loading of game processing for large games with many ships
- fixed ships sometimes getting stuck salvaging debris when has bonuses but came from one of own empire's ships
- construction ships now more careful to avoid building at distant locations (even in same system) when do not have hyperdrive
- no longer generate error sound and effect when move mouse off scrollbar while scrolling a panel or list




While they've obviously released a number of patches already, this one feels a little more significant:  Seems like it's done a better job at performance improvements, plus it's the first update to start addressing actual gameplay issues.  The changes to exploration are especially welcome, particularly when you're playing on a pre-warp start (which is the "default/recommended" setting). 

Downside to the new patch:  Playing as the Ackdarians, my ancient spaceport now gets automatically scrapped instead of rebuilt.  :kling:  Not sure if it's a bug or "working as intended", but I did report it over in the Matrix forums.  Still, definitely good changes overall. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 15, 2022, 01:17:10 AM
I'm not 100% sure it's the same thing as you're describing, but the previous game had a noise that played as you zoomed into a planet....kind of like a humming noise iirc.

Yes, DW:U had an "industrial" track/sound-effect that played when zoomed in on planets as well.  That one never bothered me, though.  (In fact, I rather liked it.)  Go figure...  ??? 



If it's a feature, then you should maybe write a request that this could be turned off?

As a matter of fact, I did end up posting about my problem in the Matrix forums.  Thanks to replies from a few of the regulars there, I was eventually able to figure out how to track down and delete the offending mp3 file out of the game's music folder.  So I can happily -- and finally! -- now play DW2 without worrying about headache-inducing soundtracks.  :groovy: 



Martok - much respect to you for being honest.

Yeah, from what I've been reading here and elsewhere this game sounds like it could've used at least another few months in the oven. I guess that's Matrix/Slitherine for you. And shame on me for pre-ordering; I rarely break that rule but thought DW2 would be a safe bet.

Oh well, I'm back from holiday so I'll give it a try tonight anyway.

Thanks, Huw.  I try to give it to you guys straight, and not pull my punches. 


Despite all I've said, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer and make it sounds like Distant Worlds 2 is awful.  Despite my (numerous) gripes -- and there are undoubtedly more I have yet to discover :P -- I find the game is still fun to play overall.  Most of the issues I've come across thus far have been minor, and my general experience is one that's common to any modern PC game release. 

As I was saying to Brant during Happy Hour earlier today, I have to keep reminding myself that Stellaris wasn't great at release either, and that -- like DW2 now -- it had more than its fair share of bugs, imbalances, gameplay issues, polish issues, QoL issues, etc. back then.  I think for the most part, I'm especially frustrated with the current state of DW2 because of 1.) it's been my most-anticipated game these last three years; and 2.) its release was already delayed by around 1 1/2 years, so it's difficult not to be harsh.  If I'm especially critical, but it's because I care and really want this to be good. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 15, 2022, 04:53:32 AM
Should be able to dedicate some time to it today
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 15, 2022, 06:55:19 AM
Another issue I've run into, possibly two.  (I did already report it in the Matrix forums.) 

In the attached screenshot, I've officially encountered (established diplomatic relations with) 2 pirate factions. However, there's a 3rd pirate faction in my own home system (the Ackdarian Army) who I have *not* officially encountered -- and that's despite their base having fired upon two of my exploration ships already. Not sure if that's a bug per se, but it struck me as odd.

Also:  For this game, I set pirates to Very Few.  Yet I've already run into three pirate groups, despite not having even left my home system yet?  Maybe I'm just unlucky, but it seems like a bit much. 


On the flip side, early expansion pacing feels much better now when playing with a pre-warp start.  It's still not exactly blazing fast, but at least it doesn't drag on interminably like it did before. 




Should be able to dedicate some time to it today

Cool!  Will be curious to know what your impressions are. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 15, 2022, 07:29:01 AM
I’m running into the hoards of pirates thing too, and so are lots of others. Even at very few and far away I seem to get two or three in my home system.

Someone in the Steam discussion was saying that some of  the pirates are triggered by events, and are part of the lore story, and are thus not controlled by the startup settings… make sense if true but still seems a bit much right at the start.

 :waiting:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 15, 2022, 08:50:43 AM
Can you disable the story elements then?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 15, 2022, 09:49:35 AM
Can you disable the story elements then?

Not sure....
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 15, 2022, 11:01:05 AM
I don't know why I didn't just load the game and check for myself. :D

So I did, and yes you can - both general and race-specific stories, apparently. Cool.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 15, 2022, 04:33:47 PM
(to share one of ojsdad's frustrations) that there doesn't appear to be a single screen from which I can order X number of Z ship type to be built, and instead I have to go a specific facility and manually queue some up. 

Found it!  Top right of the screenshot with the green box around it

This doesn't seem to be working at all.  I've tried it a couple of times, but no ships seem to be getting queued up.

I thought I had the same problem at first - are you clicking "purchase" after queuing up the ships? Nothing gets built until you do, but I've just confirmed it's working for me.

You are correct, though, that there's no way to re-base a fleet. What you can do is select the fleet (therefore all the ships will be selected in a group), disband it, then click create fleet again. However I don't know what logic it uses to choose what will be the new base. When I did it, the base went from the planet to the star port in orbit.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 15, 2022, 07:27:14 PM
After researching colonisation tech I scratched my head for ages wondering how to build a colony ship. Turns out you need to research another tech (something like small civilian vessels) to get access to the colony ship hull. You'd think one would be a prerequisite for the other, wouldn't you?  ::) Anyway, hopefully this saves someone else the bafflement.

I think I've found a bug regarding resource abundancies. I literally watched with my own eyes as an exploration ship surveyed an asteroid. It definitely said it had about 3% Mebnar and nothing else. However I then got a pop-up suggestion that we build a mining base there because it has 13% steel and 12% Mebnar! I said yes anyway, then popped back over to the asteroid, selected it, and once again it said 3% Mebnar. So which is it?!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 16, 2022, 12:34:43 AM
So when playing as the Ackdarians, you start with an ancient Small Spaceport in orbit of your homeworld.  Once you "discover" it (i.e., it comes into sensor range of one of your exploration ships), you get the option of either repairing it -- thus immediately gaining a free spaceport -- or scrapping it for a decent sum of credits & resources.  (Going strictly by the numbers, it's probably worth more to scrap the spacesport...except that you need to then spend the time building a new spaceport -- time your construction ships could have spent building other stations instead.) 

However, since the 1.0.1.9 patch dropped yesterday, I've been repeatedly running into an issue (bug?) where the Ackdarians' ancient spaceport is automatically rebuilt...and then automatically scrapped just a day or two later.  It all happens so quickly that the messages for both events pop up at nearly the same time, and there's no opportunity for me to have any input on the matter regardless. 

Moreover, this now happens every single time I play as the Ackdarians -- no exceptions.  Is anyone else experiencing this, or is it just me? 


(https://i.imgur.com/14j0kxN.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/MNbMuTE.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/xFMmIRO.jpg)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 16, 2022, 12:58:47 AM



Someone in the Steam discussion was saying that some of  the pirates are triggered by events, and are part of the lore story, and are thus not controlled by the startup settings…

Yep, that's precisely what Erik said in his response to my query about it in the Matrix forums.  Guess I'll try firing up a new game with pirates turned completely off and see what happens. 



make sense if true but still seems a bit much right at the start.

Agreed. 





(to share one of ojsdad's frustrations) that there doesn't appear to be a single screen from which I can order X number of Z ship type to be built, and instead I have to go a specific facility and manually queue some up. 

Found it!  Top right of the screenshot with the green box around it

This doesn't seem to be working at all.  I've tried it a couple of times, but no ships seem to be getting queued up.

I thought I had the same problem at first - are you clicking "purchase" after queuing up the ships? Nothing gets built until you do, but I've just confirmed it's working for me.

For myself, yes I did finally find that screen.  And yes, I did figure I had to click "purchase" in order to actually get the ships built. 

I feel, however, that perhaps the Purchase button could/should be better highlighted.  It's maybe fine if (like me) you've played DW:U before, or even other complex strategy games -- and even then, some folks are still going to struggle -- but you're likely to be a lost boy/girl otherwise. 



[You are correct, though, that there's no way to re-base a fleet. What you can do is select the fleet (therefore all the ships will be selected in a group), disband it, then click create fleet again. However I don't know what logic it uses to choose what will be the new base. When I did it, the base went from the planet to the star port in orbit.

Oy.  That almost gives me a headache just reading your description of that.  :doh:   

It's a textbook example of how DW2 currently feels so rough, even setting aside the usual issues a game often deals with just after release.  There is absolutely zero reason why re-basing a fleet shouldn't already be a function in the game.  The lack of said feature is especially baffling when DW2 is obviously trying to compete with Stellaris, which of course has had the re-basing function for fleets since the very beginning.  I just don't get it. 




After researching colonisation tech I scratched my head for ages wondering how to build a colony ship. Turns out you need to research another tech (something like small civilian vessels) to get access to the colony ship hull. You'd think one would be a prerequisite for the other, wouldn't you?  ::) Anyway, hopefully this saves someone else the bafflement.

Heh.  Yes, that would make sense.  ::) ;D  I have started noticing that tech requirements are not always very straightforward; I feel like they could've been/could be laid out a little better. 



I think I've found a bug regarding resource abundancies. I literally watched with my own eyes as an exploration ship surveyed an asteroid. It definitely said it had about 3% Mebnar and nothing else. However I then got a pop-up suggestion that we build a mining base there because it has 13% steel and 12% Mebnar! I said yes anyway, then popped back over to the asteroid, selected it, and once again it said 3% Mebnar. So which is it?!

Hmm, that one's new to me; at the very least, I've not noticed it so far.  You might want to report that bug in the forums. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 16, 2022, 06:19:07 AM
heh - im much easier to please than you guys im just watching private industry do its thing - loving it

Dont know if it will be easier to open a new DW2 faq thread but ill ask here anyway

ive scanned an asteroid and it shows steel and blah blah but with a red box round it saying shortage - is this saying i have a shortage of materials to build a mine here or that i have a shortage of this at home and building a mine here will be great
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 16, 2022, 06:59:44 AM
heh - im much easier to please than you guys im just watching private industry do its thing - loving it

Oh, absolutely.  It's a total blast to watch your industry in motion, and to see it slowly expand across your system; it's by far one of the series' great strengths (for both games).  It never gets old for me.  :) 



Dont know if it will be easier to open a new DW2 faq thread but ill ask here anyway

ive scanned an asteroid and it shows steel and blah blah but with a red box round it saying shortage - is this saying i have a shortage of materials to build a mine here or that i have a shortage of this at home and building a mine here will be great

It's the second one.  Go build that mine! 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 16, 2022, 11:46:46 AM
thankyou sir

research stations have been built around my moon, mining off the asteroid belt, shortly to be mining the moon, exploration ship off to next system, scientist sent off to research station........ all seems to be going ok so far

i keep getting a message saying theres hidden things on my home planet - presumably i need to research more high powered scanners and fit the new gear onto the exploration ship?

i just failed my first research target having 'taken the wrong path' is that just a bad dice roll?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 16, 2022, 01:22:22 PM
I think this has been mentioned but I can't find it now - why can't I build a starport wherever I like? One got built automatically (might have been a suggestion first) around my home planet, but regardless of whether it's a good idea, why can't I order a construction ship to build one around another? Does the planet need to be colonised first?

i keep getting a message saying theres hidden things on my home planet - presumably i need to research more high powered scanners and fit the new gear onto the exploration ship?

Yeah I'm pretty sure the tooltip says as much mate.

Quote
i just failed my first research target having 'taken the wrong path' is that just a bad dice roll?

Yeah that's a critical failure. You can get critical successes as well, that - so far at least - seem to reward you with a scientist as well as crashing your current research for free.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 17, 2022, 01:43:55 AM
i keep getting a message saying theres hidden things on my home planet - presumably i need to research more high powered scanners and fit the new gear onto the exploration ship?

Correct. 



i just failed my first research target having 'taken the wrong path' is that just a bad dice roll?

Precisely. 

I've had a few of those myself, along with a few "critical successes" as well.  It's all to represent how research can take the occasional left turn, both for good and for bad. 




I think this has been mentioned but I can't find it now - why can't I build a starport wherever I like? One got built automatically (might have been a suggestion first) around my home planet, but regardless of whether it's a good idea, why can't I order a construction ship to build one around another? Does the planet need to be colonised first?

That's correct.  You can only build starports around inhabited planets (that you own). 

I will say it would be nice if you could at least construct "starbases" (that serve as a combination of shipyard, supply depot, listening post, etc.) anywhere you like.  (Heck, maybe you *can*, and I just haven't figured how to build them yet.  Wouldn't entirely surprise me.) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 17, 2022, 09:40:51 PM
Playing as Humans, pre-warp tech.  Shortly after I get basic warp tech, I get visited by a pirate clan.  I have the choice of ignoring them or paying them 25,000 credits. 

Spoiler: ShowHide
Paying them 25K, reveals that they hare also human, and the decedents of our ancestors.  They're ancestor were members of 8th fleet, tasked with watching over our world until the  time we're ready to go into the star again.  You can a base in a near by system, 3 frigates, and a destroyer.   
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 17, 2022, 11:36:36 PM
....

Ummmm... SPOILER!   :waiting:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 18, 2022, 12:25:58 AM
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 18, 2022, 08:08:15 AM
There, I hid it now.

Wasn't looking to do that, was just trying to show that some of the pirates are more than what they first appear. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 18, 2022, 09:28:50 AM
I think I've found a bug regarding resource abundancies. I literally watched with my own eyes as an exploration ship surveyed an asteroid. It definitely said it had about 3% Mebnar and nothing else. However I then got a pop-up suggestion that we build a mining base there because it has 13% steel and 12% Mebnar! I said yes anyway, then popped back over to the asteroid, selected it, and once again it said 3% Mebnar. So which is it?!

Solved. Apparently the advisor popup details all the resources that will be in range of the mine. The reason I was confused is that it named the precise asteroid, so I assumed it was talking about resources only from that asteroid.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 18, 2022, 11:52:55 AM
New patch dropped;

Quote
Distant Worlds 2 - Latest Update (1.0.2.1)

This build will reset the game's settings. Unfortunately this is required while we continue troubleshooting issues that are preventing some players from being able to play Distant Worlds 2. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Latest Troubleshooting FAQ HERE

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is now a new startup log in the /data/logs sub-folder of the Distant Worlds 2 installation.

This is also where any crash logs are located. If you are experiencing an issue, please post these logs for us along with the issue report.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a new GameSettingsOverride.txt in the /data sub-folder of the Distant Worlds 2 installation.

The settings here may help some players experiencing a black screen on load issue.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are experiencing performance issues use the key combination Shift + tilde to enable an overlay on the top left which will confirm for us which GPU DW2 is using on your system as well as other performance parameters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changes in the 1.0.2.1 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when rendering empire territory
- fixed rare crash when scrapping advanced ship with tech bonus, but your empire has not yet researched a relevant project
- fixed rare crash when calculating military ship strength
- fixed rare crash when evaluating threats to a ship

RENDERING CRASH HANDLING
- more graceful recovery when texture or vertex buffer creation fails due to display adapter crash, reset, or change in performance mode. This should greatly reduce the number of DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crashes

DIPLOMACY
- improved diplomacy so that relations now more likely to rise to higher levels (top-level treaties) when you work at improving relations with a faction. Remember that you can directly set diplomatic strategy per faction, which will also help improve relations (Befriend, Ally, Close Ally)

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- fixed bug where ships and fleets could sometimes teleport to edge of galaxy when assigned a mission while already jumping
- fleet jump speed coordination now applies to all fleet missions, not just attack missions (ships travel at same jump speed)
- Fuel Tankers no longer use fleet jump speed when part of a fleet

OTHER
- now properly review maximum colony population level as tech improves (colonization modifiers) and planet quality changes (terraforming, etc). This fixes issues with migration missions sometimes not completing
- ensure that player's per-role ship design automation settings are reset between each game (not remembered from previous games)
- Fleet Template screen no longer generates empty fleet when do not have enough money to build
- ensure scroll position in Empire Policy screen is reset to top when open again (previously settings were sometimes not appearing until scrolled up)
- reduced estimated resource demand for fuel so that more accurately aligns with actual usage
- changed default game start settings for research to fixed paths and colonization range limit to 300M
- Data fixes and changes to correct resource costs for some components/hulls with no resource costs or incorrect costs
- Added missing fallback paths for some armor techs
- Fixes for some story event issues
- Extended range for dedicated bombardment weapons
- Simplified main menu scene to assist with consistent startup crash troubleshooting
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 18, 2022, 02:57:12 PM
So, I did a search on the DW2 forum asking about setting the Home Base for a fleet, here is the answer.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: judgedredd on March 18, 2022, 03:25:02 PM
There, I hid it now.

Wasn't looking to do that, was just trying to show that some of the pirates are more than what they first appear.
Ha - doesn't matter - Barth quoted it  :doh:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 18, 2022, 04:03:15 PM
So, I did a search on the DW2 forum asking about setting the Home Base for a fleet, here is the answer.

FFS why can't it be a button on the orders bar like the first game?!

Fine, at least there's a way. Thanks mate.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on March 18, 2022, 04:05:57 PM
There, I hid it now.

Wasn't looking to do that, was just trying to show that some of the pirates are more than what they first appear.
Ha - doesn't matter - Barth quoted it  :doh:

 :-[ Fixed!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 18, 2022, 06:00:42 PM
Am I the only one that seems to be having colonies get stuck at -1,000 credits.  They never seem to go below that, except for my home world and one independent colony that joined my empire
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 18, 2022, 07:21:39 PM
I no more posted the above about colonies, and then a number of them start improving economically. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 19, 2022, 02:53:37 AM
Playing as Humans, pre-warp tech.  Shortly after I get basic warp tech, I get visited by a pirate clan.  I have the choice of ignoring them or paying them 25,000 credits. 

Spoiler: ShowHide
Paying them 25K, reveals that they hare also human, and the decedents of our ancestors.  They're ancestor were members of 8th fleet, tasked with watching over our world until the  time we're ready to go into the star again.  You can a base in a near by system, 3 frigates, and a destroyer.   


Very cool, ojsdad!  I'm guessing that's precisely what Erik was referring to about pirates being part of game/faction lore. 




I think I've found a bug regarding resource abundancies. I literally watched with my own eyes as an exploration ship surveyed an asteroid. It definitely said it had about 3% Mebnar and nothing else. However I then got a pop-up suggestion that we build a mining base there because it has 13% steel and 12% Mebnar! I said yes anyway, then popped back over to the asteroid, selected it, and once again it said 3% Mebnar. So which is it?!

Solved. Apparently the advisor popup details all the resources that will be in range of the mine. The reason I was confused is that it named the precise asteroid, so I assumed it was talking about resources only from that asteroid.

Ah, good to know.  Thanks, Huw

I've been wondering about whether mining stations were "connected" to one asteroid only, or several, as it's not been clear.  I'd been hoping it was the latter, so it's nice to get some confirmation of that. 




I no more posted the above about colonies, and then a number of them start improving economically. 

Heh, I'm not surprised.  How income works -- especially from colonies, but also in general -- has always been something of a black box when it comes to Distant Worlds. 

It's become more of a common complaint that ever this past week.  I'm curious to see what, if anything, Elliot & Erik do about it. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 19, 2022, 03:29:30 AM
Incidentally, I came across a couple things I found interesting... 




First off, Marco Minoli, Slitherine's marketing director, wrote up this short piece about DW2 (https://www.slitherine.com/news/the-new-journey-of-distant-worlds): 

Spoiler: ShowHide

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Distant Worlds beginning

When the first Distant Worlds launched in 2010 Slitherine was a different place. It was the first big title we were releasing after the acquisition of Matrix Games, and it was launched on our site only. CodeForce was a one-man team with almost no external help; everything was done in-house: engine, graphics, design, story. Everything.

A passion, not a work

As a marketing person, everything I do is about communicating someone else's vision, the fruit of someone else's heart and mind, and turning it into product. And that is the real challenge because the creators of these games don't see what they do as a "product." More often than not, they don't even see it as work. It's a passion, and it's dedication, excitement, intensity, joy, and rage. It's more an emotion than a product, but it's a very personal one, something that's impossible to translate into words or images. There is so much intangible behind a game like this that seeing it out there, played and enjoyed and rated by others, feels unreal for those who have made it.

Twelve years later

After twelve years, though, Distant Worlds belongs to the players as much as it belongs to its creators: Elliott Gibbs and Erik Rutins. This is why we decided to pick "The Galaxy is Alive" as a tagline for the game. It's been alive for a long time now, and it's now taking new life with this launch. It's the biggest thing we've ever released in our history, and seeing thousands of players spending countless hours in the game is a privilege for everyone who's worked on it. We've reached the top of the charts, added tens of thousands of wishlists, made it to the homepages over every single 3d party store around the globe. And yet, this is only the beginning of an incredible journey.

The future

While the CodeForce team loses sleep trying to fix the inevitable launch bugs, we're all working hard to plan the title's future. Once the dust settles for the outside world, Elliott and Erik will return to their drawing board and reignite their creator mode, turn ideas into code, code into sweat and emotions and pass it over to us.

 

There will be a lot more screaming and shouting, more planning and brainstorming, but we're going to make sure that we keep breathing new life into the galaxy. You will only have to enjoy it.





I get the sense this is a combination of spin-doctoring and/or ass-covering, but I'm puzzled as to what end, since (as far as I can tell) the article is currently only accessible via the company's emailed newsletter.  I'm similarly curious as to who the article is aimed at, since I'm guessing most folks who are already signed up to receive the newsletter generally understand how Slittherine operates, and are therefore going to be more patient and/or forgiving with DW2's various launch issues. 




Second, Marco made some interesting comments in connection with DW2 during Thursday's Tea Time video:





In it, he talks about how the game is, by far, the biggest and -- overall -- most successful launch in Slitherine's history; and proceeds to rattle off a bunch of numbers highlighting that fact. 

A little later on, however, he announces Slitherine is delaying the launch of their Starship Troopers game...in order to put it through a final -- and much larger -- beta pool/process, so they can better test how well the game runs on different hardware configurations.  He directly admits this is in response to DW2's launch, and how going forward, Slitherine plans to be more thorough & methodical about testing for these sorts of problems before releasing their games (presumably & especially their larger titles). 


It'll interesting to see how this affects development of their other games going forward, but perhaps it's just as well that Distant Worlds 2 is turning out to be a wake-up call for them. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 19, 2022, 04:25:39 AM
Very interesting, thanks Martok. I have been as frustrated as anyone else with some of the launch issues, but unless my memory is failing me, DW2 actually launched in a far better shape than its predecessor. The first game had some unbelievable "how did you miss that" moments, for example bases not moving in space with the planets they're built on. DW2 has some issues remaining, but they're fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. Many of them were caught by the initial post-launch flurry of patches.

Regardless of all else, I'm really enjoying the game.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 19, 2022, 07:10:27 PM
I've turned off showing civilian ships as it seems to improve performance, even though my CPU, RAM, and GPU utilization is fine. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 20, 2022, 12:56:24 AM
^  Yeah, I've done the same. 

IIRC, it was pretty common to do that in DW:U as well.  When you have that many civilian ships running around, it's probably inevitable that it begins to take a toll on performance. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on March 20, 2022, 12:00:13 PM
Ok, so who here wants to do a DW2-focused podcast?

 :party:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 20, 2022, 12:34:56 PM
Martok

I’m still watching all the little ships go backwards and forwards
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 20, 2022, 10:01:13 PM
I'd be willing to sure, although even I don't feel like I've played the game enough yet.  (Of course, I'll probably still feel that way even after I've spent a couple hundred hours with it. ::) )  DW2 probably isn't *quite* as deep or complex as Shadow Empire, but it's damn close. 


That being said, I'm happy to do a podcast whenever.  (Now we just need 1-2 other folks who are also willing to do so, as we obviously don't want just me rambling about the game by myself for over an hour. :notme: )   


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 21, 2022, 09:23:27 PM
2 more observations;

1.  If you have policies set to suggest ships to build, the AI will want to build a lot of military ships to patrol you colonized systems.  I'm not sure having that many ships is necessary.
2.  I've salvaged a couple of ships and had them join a fleet.  In stead of heading to the nearest system to get fuel, and then proceeding to the fleet, it heads straight to the fleet with no fuel, thus taking a very long time.  It reminds me of DW:U where the ships navigators couldn't plot a course with stops at a gas station. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 22, 2022, 06:45:43 PM
1.  If you have policies set to suggest ships to build, the AI will want to build a lot of military ships to patrol you colonized systems.  I'm not sure having that many ships is necessary.

The problem is how long it takes for a fleet to move to another system. In my experience when another empire declares war the attack comes almost immediately. They can destroy all your stations long before a fleet arrives. So on balance, until I can field stations that are armed to the teeth, I'd rather have one fleet per system.

Quote
2.  I've salvaged a couple of ships and had them join a fleet.  In stead of heading to the nearest system to get fuel, and then proceeding to the fleet, it heads straight to the fleet with no fuel, thus taking a very long time.  It reminds me of DW:U where the ships navigators couldn't plot a course with stops at a gas station.

Don't get me started on the fuel issues in this game. Like a tanker trying to fuel a ship at warp, endlessly jumping to catch up to a ship at warp and thus tying up TWO of your ships at 33% speed until they reach their destination (where fuel is probably waiting anyway).

Unfortunately, the more I play the game, the more broken I realise it is. I'm probably going to shelve it for quite a while.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 22, 2022, 07:54:19 PM
What's especially frustrating is that a lot of the fuel issues present in the current game, were also problems in DW:U.  I'm disappointed -- and a little gobsmacked -- that this has apparently still not been addressed (at least sufficiently so) in DW2. 



Another minor gripe that's been bothering since launch:  The camera. 

Why can I not pan the camera around at whatever angle I wish?  What was the point of the game switching from 2D to 3D, whilst simultaneously restricting the player's ability to move the camera around?  If they're going to give us these nice-looking, big-ass planets & moons, but I then can't pan around to overhead & underneath shots so I can admire them in all their glory, then why'd the devs bother doing all that in the first place?  Gah. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 23, 2022, 02:21:10 PM
Todays patch

Spoiler: ShowHide
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Changes in the 1.0.2.4 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed game hang that was causing saves and loads to fail
- fixed rare crash when applying nebula effects to ships
- fixed rare crash while initiating particle effects

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- altered asset streaming timeout to reduce video memory usage

FLEET AND SHIP FIXES
- now exclude ships that cannot jump when determining fleet jump speed (previously was blocking some missions)
- improved logic for fighters boarding their carriers when the carrier is preparing to jump. Normally when carrier is jumping they will wait for fighters to board, unless very distant. But when carrier is escaping then fighter boarding time is reduced and fighters may be left behind (destroyed)
- improved performance of exploration ship mission selection when in late-game and most systems explored
- fixed bug where ships were sometimes overcautious about travelling to locations with effects, e.g. black holes with ranged damage effects

OTHER FIXES
- reenabled maximum research queue limit of 15 projects
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 23, 2022, 03:43:39 PM
Glad to see them starting to address some of the ship/fleet logic issues. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 24, 2022, 08:16:33 PM
So, I have Independent Colonies set to the lowest setting.  In a galaxy of over 2000 star systems, and 27 either fully or partially explored, I've found 3 independent colonies.   >:(
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 25, 2022, 02:17:35 AM
Just watch -- they'll turn out to be the only ones on the entire map.  They just happened to cluster around your starting position...  :hehe: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 28, 2022, 01:23:32 PM
Opened a thread at the Matrix Forum about Independent Colonies. 

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=382015

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I've started 3 games and had Independent Colonies option set to the lowest setting, Very Rare. However, in the first 30 years of game play, in each of the 3 games that I had started, I'd come across 3 separate ICs. Each game was created with 2000 star systems in a varied cluster galaxy. In the latest attempt, I've fully explored 29 systems, partially explored 43, and have 1935 unknown.

What is the purpose of setting the likely hood of encountering ICs if they're all going to get placed close to your home world?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 28, 2022, 01:25:05 PM
A couple of more patches have dropped in the last few days;

Changes in the 1.0.2.6 build:
Spoiler: ShowHide

Quote
Changes in the 1.0.2.6 build:

CRASH FIXES
- adjusted how some vertex buffers were created to improve stability (more to come on this)
- fixed bug where shield impact model vertices were sometimes setup incorrectly
- fixed rare crash when ship is turning
- fixed rare crash when initiating particle effect
- fixed rare crash when assigning ship mission

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- increased multi-threading support for some game logic, improves performance, especially for large late-games

FLEET AND SHIP COORDINATION IMPROVEMENTS
- added full Prepare and Attack missions for fleets (attack, raid, capture, bombard). This is the default right-click fleet attack mission type and will also be used by automated fleets. Fleets will now automatically refuel (when need fuel) or waypoint (if need to regroup) before undertaking their attack mission. If they do not need refuelling or regrouping then they will attack the target directly. When refuelling or regrouping the fleet will synchronize their final jump to the attack target.


Changes in the 1.0.2.8 build:  This dropped today.
Spoiler: ShowHide
Quote
CRASH FIXES
- fixed savegame corruption when save while expired messages are being purged (note that some past saves were corrupted and if these do not load in 1.0.2.8 they are unrecoverable)
- fixed hang on save due to fighters incorrectly taking their parent carriers 'Prepare and Attack' missions
- fixed rare crash when iterating fleet ships
- fixed rare crash when sending message to empire
- fixed rare crash when iterating empire messages
- fixed crash when clearing pursuers from target

RENDERING FIXES
- changed how vertex buffers are handled to reduce video memory usage and reduce crashes
- now more carefully check for missing buffers when rendering shield impact effects

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- now take more care to ensure nearby ships are added to fleets, thus better preserving fleet cohesion
- exclude ships with manually assigned attack missions when determine whether to break off attack against a target (target jumps outside engagement range or fuel range, etc)
- fleets and ships now better at retaining attack missions against targets that jump to another location, especially when target remains in same system
- fixed bug blocking direct attack fleet missions
- shortened wait time before attacking when fleets regroup at a waypoint (Prepare and Attack), i.e. fleets commence attack phase faster once reach waypoint

OTHER
- ensure freighters with short hyperdrive jump range are not selected for distant transport missions (should fix freighters with Skip Drives sometimes dumping cargo)
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 28, 2022, 07:21:51 PM



Erik & Elliot posted a State of the Game and Update Roadmap (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=382013) as well: 


Spoiler: ShowHide
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As of March 28th, 2022 v1.0.2.8

Hello to everyone in the Distant Worlds 2 community,

First, Elliot and I would like to thank all of our customers for your patience and your support since Distant Worlds 2 was released. For those who have experienced serious issues, we apologize and especially appreciate your understanding as we work to resolve these.

(TLDR: We are prioritizing Critical Issues, Performance Issues and Gameplay issues in that order. We will be putting more time into testing beta updates before they go official to avoid introducing new save or other problems. We will be switching to a slower update schedule to make additional testing possible and to improve the stability of official updates going forward.)

It’s clear, in hindsight, that while we had over 300 testers and DW2 was in alpha and beta testing for a year, we did not have a large enough testing pool to catch all critical issues related to hardware configurations. It’s also clear that despite the best efforts of a lot of very good volunteer testers, we didn’t achieve the level of polish that many of you expected at release.

Since release, we have been working overtime to address those issues preventing gameplay for some customers, while also addressing other serious issues affecting a wider range of players. This has resulted in fourteen new updates in the two or so weeks since release. These updates have fixed many crashes, performance issues and gameplay issues for many players.
Unfortunately, not all the critical issues are resolved (though many have been) and the pace of the updates has also created some serious new issues from time to time, including some save file problems in 1.0.2.2 and 1.0.2.6 that should not have made it to a public release.

While the urgency of getting DW2 working for everyone has been driving us to investigate and iterate as quickly as possible, it’s clear that we can’t maintain the pace of an update every day or two and it’s also clear that in that rush we have not allowed time for enough testing between releases. This is going to change going forward as I’ll explain below.

Priority #1 - Issues Preventing Gameplay

Our first priority remains resolving critical issues preventing gameplay for some customers. The most common of these remain frequent crashes (especially in battle) or crashes on startup or black screens on startup. In addition, we have issues where some very high end GPUs are trying to run DW2 while remaining in some kind of power-saving mode, thus causing much worse than expected performance, or where dual GPU systems are trying to run DW2 on the integrated rather than dedicated GPU to some degree, causing slowdowns and crashes.

We are working on all of these and have brought in Matrix/Slitherine’s Technical Director to work together with Elliot on some of these issues, especially those which appear to be at a lower level than most of the game code.

The main challenge and delay in resolving these has been the great difficulty in reproducing them. We are proceeding in two main directions right now. :

First, we are re-engineering how DW2 creates and manages vertex buffers, which appear to be at the core of many of the issues, especially with AMD GPUs and their drivers. The first iteration of vertex buffer changes is in 1.0.2.8 and we hope this will help many customers.

Second, we are working to improve the low level GPU identification and selection code to make sure that on systems with dual GPUs DW2 is always running on the correct one and that very high end GPUs no longer try to take a nap while DW2 is running. We expect efforts in this area to reach the public within about a week after this roadmap is posted.

Priority #2 - Performance

Our second priority has been performance and while this remains a high priority, we have already made major performance improvements for many systems in the last two weeks and we hope that resolving the remaining low level GPU issues will resolve most of the remaining performance concerns, where systems are above our minimum specifications and playing a reasonable galaxy size and resolution for their hardware.

It’s important to note that we also have seen instances where customers are running maximum size 2000 star galaxies on minimum specification hardware, which will likely never result in good performance, but performance across the board has seen significant improvements and that will continue. We also plan in the future to add more guidance in galaxy setup as to which galaxy sizes are recommended for systems closer to the lower end of the hardware specification and which are suitable for systems at the higher end.

There are also some concerns on certain systems regarding performance in nebulas, with certain map overlays and with the research screen which will need additional work if the low level fixes do not resolve these on all systems. If needed, we will address these more specific performance concerns after the general performance issues are resolved.

Priority #3 - Gameplay

Our third priority has been addressing major gameplay concerns, such as some espionage balance issues, some diplomacy issues and most recently fleet and ship coordination issues. We will be continuing to fit these in as we can and we expect the immediate priorities in this area to be as follows:

1. Further fleet and ship behavior polish, especially relating to interactions with manual orders and fuel tankers. This should be coming in the first beta update this week and hopefully be finished in the next official update.

2. Improve quality of live for manual players with regard to multi-selection of ships and the available orders and automation settings

3. Additional guidance in the UI on the cost of low suitability colonization and support costs for existing and new colonies

4. Improve pathing issues related to nebula storms as well as home systems being generated within nebulas This should also improve pathfinding issues that could in rare cases result in ridiculous paths around the galaxy.

5. Improve auto-design at certain tech levels and ship hull levels for certain ships, especially small troop transports, colony ships and fuel tankers, to make sure they have the necessary ion defenses, speed and range for their missions.

6. Address rare issues with messaging that could cause rapidly repeating/looping messages especially relating to story events and threats like the Hive and Planet Destroyer. Also improve message handling, especially regarding attack notification messages in the late game.

7. Resolve issues relating to some cases where the wrong race is chosen suitability-wise for colonization or migration

8. Polish Espionage and Diplomacy further. Adjust the Espionage difficulties to the desired range and to investigate and fix reported issues with some higher end treaty types.

9. Investigate the reports of issues with either automated stock maintain levels or freighter and passenger ship construction for the Private Sector to ensure all is working as intended. Some progress on this may already have been made in the 1.0.2.8 update.

10. Adjust the corruption scaling to avoid the situation, especially at difficulty settings above Normal, where large colony income could decrease as the colony approached maximum population.

There are also other reported gameplay issues beyond these top 10 which we will also address as we go forward, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but there are our initial goals.

Finally, let me discuss the new update schedule. This week we are releasing 1.0.2.8 as an official update today. Going forward, we plan to release beta updates on Thursdays on Steam and GOG and official update on all stores on certain Tuesdays. That may shift to a once every two week schedule as the most critical issues are resolved. This will not slow down our development, but it will allow us more time to test each beta update and make sure that as much as humanly possible, we’re only taking steps forward and no more steps back.

For those customers still affected by critical issues after 1.0.2.8, we’re sorry we couldn’t get every critical issue resolved yet with our quick updates to date, but know that you remain our highest priority and we won’t stop until we make sure every system within our minimum specifications is able to play DW2 as it was intended.

Thank you again if you took the time to read all of this and for those who have been unhappy with how DW2 has worked on their systems, please check in at least at the end of each week going forward and try the newest update to let us know if things have improved for you.

Sincerely,

Erik Rutins and Elliot Gibbs
Matrix Games and CodeForce






Overall, it appears they have a pretty solid handle on what the main issues are, and how to address them going forward.  Hopefully it means a game that's in much better shape a couple months down the road. 

Currently, DW2 has a "Mixed" rating on Steam, with an average score of 66%.  I can't say it's unwarranted, but it's definitely going to hurt sales.  Hopefully the situation gets better over the course of this spring/summer as patches make the game more stable and balanced. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 29, 2022, 02:14:30 AM
Currently, DW2 has a "Mixed" rating on Steam, with an average score of 66%.  I can't say it's unwarranted, but it's definitely going to hurt sales.

I have some sympathy for them with regard to technical issues, as 300 testers probably is too few to catch them all, and they're correct in my opinion to focus on the people who can't even play. My sympathy ends there though. I can't believe they thought the game was ready to release when it comes to gameplay though. The way refuelling works (or doesn't), for example - how was that not caught in testing? It's blindingly obvious. Or the laughably poor implementation of diplomacy (for example I've had the same empire declare war on me half a dozen times in the space of an hour, always asking for peace within minutes).

Mixed is, frankly, what the game deserves at present.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 29, 2022, 11:14:45 AM
300 testers doesn't sound too low a number, however, based on some of the technical issues that some people you've got to wonder was there much variety in the hardware mix that those testers use. 

For the game play issue, were they getting much feedback from the testers or if most of the testers were just wanting to play the game and didn't give any real feedback. 

Does Slitherine/Matrix have any other high end games like this.  I can think of Command, but I'm not sure it pushes the envelope this much. 

Here is where I'm disappointed at with DW2 at this time.  DW2 seems to be just a new version of DWU with new graphics engine and GUI.  I'm not seeing anything that's new to the game.  The story line looks like it's going to be the same from DW2.  All of the old game mechanics are there with a few tweaks, but nothing major.  And in a few cases, they seem to have taken a step back.  Maybe I (we) had too many high hopes for DW2.  Maybe after having played Stellaris for years now has tainted us.  Take research as an example.  DW2s big new change is hiding tech.  That's good for about 1 play through.  Compare that to Stellaris random research choices, which, even going back to an earlier save your not guaranteed the same choices.  Or the camera, as Martok pointed out.  in Stellaris you can pan 360 degrees on both X and Y axis of an object but not in DW2,

I do like the new GUI for the most part.  And I feel like I'm getting enough information out of the game to better understand what's happening in certain areas, like colony net income/loss. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 29, 2022, 12:43:23 PM
And in a few cases, they seem to have taken a step back.  Maybe I (we) had too many high hopes for DW2

Here's an example.  You can either turn auto ship design on or off in DW2.  It's all ships or none.  In DW2, you could pick which type of ships/bases were auto upgraded and which were not.  But you don't have those options in DW2.  I mean, most likely, most of us don't have too much interest in designing civilian ships or resorts.  Why are those options no longer available?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 29, 2022, 01:03:47 PM
Ok, another thing I'm noticing.  Combat doesn't seem much, if at all, improved over DWU.  Ships in fleet don't seem to attack as a group and can end up getting picked off.  In Stellaris, ship designs have combat roles that can be configured per design.  This means you end up with some ships swarming their opponents, while others, get close, and others stay further back.  But in call cases, they tend to move a fleet.  Yes, the smaller faster swarming ships will tend to move ahead of the rest of the fleet, but they move as one group.   
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on March 29, 2022, 01:37:39 PM
I was a tester and I don't recall seeing any reports of people not being able to start the game or get those black screens and crashes all the time.
Something in their code changed from beta to release as I was suddenly unable to start the game on my laptop anymore where that machine ran the beta without a hitch. You can't provide feedback on stuff that doesn't happen.

The fleet behaviour probably hasn't been tested enough. Perhaps this is due to the fact that certain beta version required a new game start and people with less time (like me) never made it to the late game in my playthroughs.
Perhaps a focussed gamestate where they wanted you to test a specific savegame state would have helped here.

So, yes I do stand by what Erik posted; 300 beta testers was probably too little. Of those 300 a fair few were only drafted in the last 3 months or so.

In defense of the game though, a lot of issues I see being posted are linked to people trying to play the DWU way, whereas DW2 offers the same options in gameplay., just in a different manner. It's hard for Erik and Elliot to sift through proper issues and these user error things.

For example. many people insist they want to give orders via the right-mouse click menu, where DW2's menu system provides this functionality now. Learn to use the lists in the proper window panes and the UI will start making sense before long.

That said, OJsDad makes a few good points as well. The game definitely needs improvements. I am sure we'll get there, though.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 29, 2022, 01:57:43 PM
I was a tester and I don't recall seeing any reports of people not being able to start the game or get those black screens and crashes all the time.
Something in their code changed from beta to release as I was suddenly unable to start the game on my laptop anymore where that machine ran the beta without a hitch. You can't provide feedback on stuff that doesn't happen.

Yep, sounds like there was a change made to the release code that never made it to the testers.  I've been around developers for years now, and I can tell you none of them like to do full regression testing.  They truly believe that the change they made for one part of any application won't impact another part.

Thanks for giving some insights on what was happening with testing. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 29, 2022, 02:16:58 PM
For example. many people insist they want to give orders via the right-mouse click menu, where DW2's menu system provides this functionality now. Learn to use the lists in the proper window panes and the UI will start making sense before long.

I agree with this.  It's also why I'm avoiding the forums as much as possible and keeping discussions here first.  It is taking time to learn the new GUI/Interface, but that is part of the fun is learning the new pieces. 

I think most people forget that DWU was the culmination of many years of DLC and improvement over the initial release.  But, as we've talked about here before, there were a few glaring issues with the final product that, at least for me, kept me from enjoying as much as I wanted to at times.  Compound that with Stellaris being front and center in between DWU and DW2.  And yes, DW and Stellaris are two totally different games in some aspects.  I don't see DW ever having mega structures or pops like Stellaris has. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on March 29, 2022, 02:40:22 PM
I think most people forget that DWU was the culmination of many years of DLC and improvement over the initial release.

Quite. So one would reasonably expect a few lessons to have been learned.

I don't want to be completely negative. I want DW2 to be the amazing game I'm pretty sure it can be...I paid for my copy after all. It's just frustrating to see the devs make the same mistakes.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 29, 2022, 04:08:03 PM
I do consider DW a true space naval game more so than Stellaris.  I was always a wormhole person, and still not opposed to them, but after reading the Honorverse books, I'm a lot more open to hyper/warp open space.  DW allows and requires you to build refueling points, long range scanner, boarder strong points, and rapid reaction forces. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 29, 2022, 05:10:38 PM
I just have to say that you guys are making it difficult for me to meaningfully contribute to this thread lately, though it's for (a) good reason(s):  By the time I get around to posting any particular thoughts about the game, I discover one of you has already beaten me to it.  (Seriously, I find myself agreeing with just about everything you guys are saying.)  :cowboy: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on March 30, 2022, 02:45:58 AM
I do consider DW a true space naval game more so than Stellaris.  I was always a wormhole person, and still not opposed to them, but after reading the Honorverse books, I'm a lot more open to hyper/warp open space.  DW allows and requires you to build refueling points, long range scanner, boarder strong points, and rapid reaction forces.

Well put! That’s exactly what I like about the game as well. In comparison Stellaris plays more like a board game. Which has its charm in a different way I suppose.

The refueling mechanics in DW2 are pretty much a mess at the moment. Tankers constantly trying to refuel eachother in a fleet is one big issue.
Its on the radar of Codeforce/Matrix, so we have to be patient.
I am not sure why this hasn’t been catched in beta testing however.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 31, 2022, 11:26:57 PM
Beta update (1.0.2.9) has dropped.  Also available on Steam and GOG: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=382205


Quote
Hi everyone,

This is the first of our beta updates which we hope will become an official update early next week. This is focused on critical crash issues and we think we've made significant progress on them.

If you are having any issues, please try this new beta and let us know if it helps you.

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 "beta - v.1.0.2.9" from the drop-down list and allowing Steam to update your game. If it updates correctly, you should see 1.0.2.9 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 "Open Beta" from the Beta channels drop-down list and allowing GOG to update.

Changes in 1.0.2.9:

CRASH FIXES

- changed how colony city night lights are handled to minimize video memory usage
- improved game update cycle to eliminate possible threading issues during game saves
- fixed crash when evaluating ship boarding status
- fixed rare crash when ship or base fires weapons
- fixed rare crash when finding nearest refuelling point
- fixed rare crash when colony wiped out
- now more careful with handling missing game settings files

ADDITIONAL LOGGING

- added functionality to automatically send crash logs to dev team (prompts player to send in next game session)

OTHER CHANGES

- now display message to indicate when auto-saving the game
- fixed cluster galaxies sometimes generating star systems outside playable area
- data fixes to certain ship hull data typos for troop transports and some stations
- data fixes for various story event issues
- research project tree fixes for various fallback and prerequisite paths, mainly to fix the armor tree
- Defensive bases can now be research one Tech Level earlier on the Research Tree


Regards,

- Erik


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 01, 2022, 07:51:48 PM
Beta 1.0.3.0 is now available: 


Quote
Changes in 1.0.3.0

CRASH FIXES

- fixed rare crash when evaluating collision avoidance factors
- fixed rare crash when assigning ship mission
- fixed rare crash when determining whether to accept treaty
- fixed rare crash when checking whether a fleet should retreat from a battle
- fixed crash when obtaining ruins and wonders at a location
- fixed crash when drawing research project summary
- fixed rare crash when ship or base fires weapons at attackers
- fixed rare crash when colony conquered by invasion
- fixed rare crash when selecting random resource
- fixed rare crash when determining diplomatic strategies with other empires

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

- improved rendering performance when in research screen

OTHER CHANGES

- additional data fixes for certain small troop transport ship hulls and certain artifacts






In addition, Erik has linked an experimental tool for those still experiencing certain major technical problems: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4981674#p4981674


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Boyerwulf on April 05, 2022, 10:46:46 AM
My latest thoughts on DW2. Stolen from a social media post I made.

 I think the game lacks in many things. The AI is completely brain dead and never consolidates it's forces. It will get together a small fleet and attack your fleet which is 6x bigger, over and over. Must be the reason people recommend playing on the highest difficulty levels. Designing your own ships is a waste of time because you then have to micromanage any upgrades, since any AI upgrades will totally change the ship. You have no control over battles, it just looks like a bunch of rugby teams charging each other. Almost no flavor as far the different races go. You automate most of everything frankly because stuff like building mining stations, and telling your explorers where to go every 15 seconds gets boring, and repetitive. The ridiculous amount of resources means that you almost have to set the economy to be automated, in order to make the game playable. Having played both this and Endless Space 2 the past week, I have to give the nod to Endless Space 2 in almost every category. While I initially liked what I saw in DW2, further playtime has soured me on it. I'm sure I will get back to it at some point.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 05, 2022, 11:24:03 AM
I couldn't agree more. I'm glad people who can't even play the game are getting priority, but in the long run the devs have a lot of work to do to bring out the full potential.

I considered giving a negative review on Steam, which (as far as a binary positive/negative choice allows) they probably deserve, but I'm holding off to see what happens in the coming months. I'd much rather give a positive review...

As things stand, this is the biggest gaming disappointment of 2022 so far for me.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 05, 2022, 06:25:05 PM
Version v.1.0.3.1 is out... 


https://steamcommunity.com/games/1531540/announcements/detail/3213888789290975573



Quote
Hello everyone,

a new update
for Distant Worlds 2 went live, here is the changelog:

CRASH FIXES


- fixed crash when ship performs collision avoidance
- fixed crash when ship determines large items to avoid
- fixed crash when completing spy mission
- fixed crash when finding nearest refuelling point
- fixed rare crash during rendering
- fixed rare crash when generating tool tips
- fixed rare crash when investigating abandoned ships or bases
- fixed crash when drawing animated characters
- fixed crash when creature moves to new location
- fixed crash when evaluating threats
- fixed crash when rendering system badges
- fixed crash when ship destroyed
- fixed crash when assigning ship mission
- fixed crash when rendering ship and base symbols
- fixed crash when updating empire territory
- fixed crash when ship exits hyperjump
- fixed crash when rendering effects
- fixed crash when identifying refuelling points
- fixed crash when reviewing fleet escort ships
- fixed crash when ship is refuelling
- fixed crash when finding fastest construction yard
- fixed crash when determining blockaded locations
- fixed crash when artifact changes location
- fixed crash when notifying empire of attack
- fixed rare crash when add display effect
- fixed rare crash when rotating stars and planets
- fixed crash when moving weapon blast
- fixed crash when updating nebula storm clouds
- fixed crash when ship or base destroyed
- fixed crash when showing message
- fixed rare crash when ship fires weapons at attackers
- fixed crash when adding resource/tourism/migration flow data
- fixed rare crash when generating tool tips
- fixed crash when drawing nebula storm clouds
- fixed crash when ship or base destroyed
- fixed crash when directing fleet escorts
- fixed crash when updating nebula cloud rendering
- fixed crash when resolving trade offer description
- fixed crash when getting fleet jump speed
- fixed crash when processing ship
- fixed crash when processing location effects
- fixed crash when checking for active hyperdeny at a location
- fixed crash when generating task to queue construction of a base at a location
- fixed rare crash when evaluating collision avoidance factors
- fixed rare crash when assigning ship mission
- fixed rare crash when determining whether to accept treaty
- fixed rare crash when checking whether a fleet should retreat from a battle
- fixed crash when obtaining ruins and wonders at a location
- fixed crash when drawing research project summary
- fixed rare crash when ship or base fires weapons at attackers
- fixed rare crash when colony conquered by invasion
- fixed rare crash when selecting random resource
- fixed rare crash when determining diplomatic strategies with other empires
- changed how colony city night lights are handled to minimize video memory usage
- improved game update cycle to eliminate possible threading issues during game saves
- fixed crash when evaluating ship boarding status
- fixed rare crash when ship or base fires weapons
- fixed rare crash when finding nearest refuelling point
- fixed rare crash when colony wiped out
- now more careful with handling missing game settings files

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS


- improved rendering performance when in research screen

ADDITIONAL LOGGING

- added functionality to automatically send crash logs to dev team (prompts player to send in next game session)

OTHER CHANGES

- additional data fixes for certain small troop transport ship hulls and certain artifacts
- now display message to indicate when auto-saving the game
- fixed cluster galaxies sometimes generating star systems outside playable area
- data fixes to certain ship hull data typos for troop transports and some stations
- data fixes for various story event issues
- research project tree fixes for various fallback and prerequisite paths, mainly to fix the armor tree
- Defensive bases can now be research one Tech Level earlier on the Research Tree


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 05, 2022, 06:43:34 PM
I'm not as down on the game you guys are, but I'm admittedly not super gung-ho on it right now either.  I definitely understand where you're coming from. 


It kills me to say this, but I'm struggling finding the motivation to play DW2 right now.  Don't get me wrong, there's a lot about the game that I like.  And I absolutely love the concept; I always have. 

At the moment, though, I'm just not seeing that it's a huge improvement over Distant Worlds: Universe.  I'm not seeing a qualitative difference between the two games, aside from the visuals and the UI...and even in those two areas, I'm not sure the improvements are *enough* of a difference to be worth it. 


When I sit down and actually play DW2, I have fun with it...for a little while.  Sooner or later, however, I find myself encountering issues -- the exploration ships, unintuitive colonization issues, fleets not moving/arriving together, the ship design problems mentioned by Boyerwulf (and so many others), etc. -- that cumulatively and up irritating me to the point that I have to just put down the game, and make me not want to come back to until a few months down the road.  Hopefully at that point, some of these issues will have been addressed. 

I do believe Distant Worlds 2 will get where it needs to be, eventually.  Given Slitherine's and Codeforce's long-term commitment to the game (as they were to the previous game), I'm confident of that.  As it stands right now, however, I just don't think it's there yet. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 06, 2022, 02:05:54 AM
When I sit down and actually play DW2, I have fun with it...for a little while.  Sooner or later, however, I find myself encountering issues

Yeah, exactly. Everything seems fine when you start playing and have a look at your whole empire. But the more you zoom in and start paying attention, the more cracks start to show.

Quote
I do believe Distant Worlds 2 will get where it needs to be, eventually.

I do too, and I'm looking forward to it. It's just a shame that it feels like waiting for the game to come out again, since we've already been through that once.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 06, 2022, 04:12:40 PM
This was a Day 1 purchase for me. I do that rarely. So to have DW2 in this state is disappointing.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 07, 2022, 12:21:19 AM
It's just a shame that it feels like waiting for the game to come out again, since we've already been through that once.

Sigh.  I can't say I disagree with you. 


I have reminded myself that with lot of games I enjoy(ed), I didn't start to actually have fun with them until months after launch, and sometimes not until after the first DLC had come out:  Stellaris, GalCiv3, Stardrive 2, and (of course) the original Distant Worlds -- just to name a few. 

That reminder is the source of comfort, as well as some of the confidence I have that DW2 will indeed get to a "good" place eventually.  But I'm still in disbelief over the game's current state. 




This was a Day 1 purchase for me. I do that rarely. So to have DW2 in this state is disappointing.

Also agreed.  Distant Worlds 2 was the first game I'd pre-ordered in over a decade -- one of the few games I've ever pre-ordered, *period*, in fact -- so for it to be in the shape it's currently in has been a major letdown. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 07, 2022, 12:55:13 AM
I’m hoping my happy ignorance comes from carrying no dw:u baggage - i haven’t put hours and hours on so I suspect I don’t even know what it’s not doing right
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 10, 2022, 10:42:56 AM
So, on the Independent Colonies issue.  I got to thinking that I would go into the game editor, and as I encountered them, I would just delete them.  Doesn't look like you can do that.  You can set them to an abandoned planet, but you cannot eliminate the population, you can only set it down to 10.

I'll have to play around with this some more.  But kind of frustrating. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 10, 2022, 11:00:23 AM
As a DW2 newcomer - what’s the issue with Indy colonies
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on April 10, 2022, 11:15:18 AM
After listening to the podcast (nice work), I was about to purchase this.

But then I read the latest in this thread and decided to wait a few months.

Good decision?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on April 10, 2022, 11:15:51 AM
Also, what is the guide that DW2 Mike referred to--the one that recommended which AI settings to turn off when you start learning the game?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 10, 2022, 11:40:04 AM
But then I read the latest in this thread and decided to wait a few months.

Good decision?

Definitely. Some of us are huge fans of the first game and really didn't want to criticise DW2, but the issues are impossible to ignore and I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to anybody yet. However, knowing the developer as we do, I think we're all pretty sure it will be the game it can be in time.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 10, 2022, 07:00:27 PM
As a DW2 newcomer - what’s the issue with Indy colonies

Part of it is style of play.  If you come across them, you either have to assimilate or conquer them.  I prefer a more empty sandbox.  I'm also frustrated because no matter the setting, your getting stuck with them.  I don't think I've explored more than 12 star systems, and have already come across 4 of them!

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 11, 2022, 05:10:08 PM
taking it bit by bit only because it feels like im standing over a huge precipice of commitment once i really get into it -

just discovered early warp and my exploration ship is heading back for retrofit, 2 more explorers in the queue

there appears to be about 4-5 light haulers hanging off the planet not doing anything - theyre set to auto, i have a mining station - should they not be hauling or are these for something else?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 11, 2022, 06:19:28 PM
Hard to say without seeing, but my guess is whatever is being mined at the station (Caslon, perchance?) is below the minimum set for the station's own stocks. They'll get to it eventually.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 12, 2022, 05:10:40 AM
Cheers buddy - didn’t see your reply on unread posts for some reason

Aaaaaand……… surely you don’t build a mining station on every asteroid???
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 12, 2022, 05:40:05 AM
Not asteroids that are bunched up, because a single station can manage multiple rocks within its radius. But generally, yeah, anywhere you find something mineable you're better off mining it.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 12, 2022, 06:09:15 AM
@geek:  As Huw said, the automated stock settings on your mining station are probably such that your idle haulers aren't needed at this point.  Once you construct more mining stations, however, you'll them start moving material back & forth. 

And no, you (thankfully) don't need to build a mining station at every asteroid, as they can handle material from multiple asteroids.  :) 




Some of us are huge fans of the first game and really didn't want to criticise DW2, but the issues are impossible to ignore and I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to anybody yet. However, knowing the developer as we do, I think we're all pretty sure it will be the game it can be in time.

This pretty much sums up my current feelings on DW2 as well -- both the good and the bad. 

I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I've pretty much set the game down for the time being.  I'm keeping an eye on the patches/updates, but I suspect it's going to be at least a few months -- and very possibly longer -- before the game is at a point where I can really enjoy it.  That it *will* get there, I don't doubt at all, but it's going to take some time. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 12, 2022, 06:15:04 AM
Is there a way to see the range of an asteroid mining station so I can choose the optimal location for capturing as many as possible in the circle?

And secondly having discovered early warp all my exploration ships fkd off to far and foreign lands leaving my home system unscanned - manually control one or build an old boy with out skip drives?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 12, 2022, 06:37:34 AM
Is there a way to see the range of an asteroid mining station so I can choose the optimal location for capturing as many as possible in the circle?

If there's no obvious ring when you're placing it then I don't know I'm afraid. To be honest I tend to just build stations wherever my advisor suggests. Seems to work.

Quote
And secondly having discovered early warp all my exploration ships fkd off to far and foreign lands leaving my home system unscanned - manually control one or build an old boy with out skip drives?

You can take manual control of one explorer and set it to survey instead of explore. However there's a good chance you've already surveyed as much as your current scanning tech allows.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 12, 2022, 10:46:15 AM
And then the pirates came - 3 factions - 1 asshole and 2 who will protect me and I have actually seen them shooting at the assholes so yay AI

Questions then DW2 mentors

I have a construction ship that somehow managed to jump back to the homeworld but is 55% damaged and disabled - what do I send to him to go fix him?

And… I’ve found an essential resource in my system but not the home system - ive easily jumped there to scan it and build a mining station and the station is filling up with goodies - will the civilian ships eventually figure out how to get this far out to collect the stuff and take it home or does the fact that it’s in the station count as me having it?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 12, 2022, 11:25:58 AM
And then the pirates came - 3 factions - 1 asshole and 2 who will protect me and I have actually seen them shooting at the assholes so yay AI

Questions then DW2 mentors

I have a construction ship that somehow managed to jump back to the homeworld but is 55% damaged and disabled - what do I send to him to go fix him?

And… I’ve found an essential resource in my system but not the home system - ive easily jumped there to scan it and build a mining station and the station is filling up with goodies - will the civilian ships eventually figure out how to get this far out to collect the stuff and take it home or does the fact that it’s in the station count as me having it?

You'll need to send another construction ship to repair the first one.

Yes, your civilian ships will eventually start hauling those goods back to planets. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 12, 2022, 11:43:52 AM
Goods need to physically be wherever they're needed, so yeah, once there's a demand (and the station's own minimum stock is exceeded) freighters will start hauling them.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 16, 2022, 02:22:11 PM
I’ve had a wonderful 6 hours with it today - I’m still sure I’m ignorant of the major issues

I’ve built a decent defence force against the pirates, I’ve just left my own systems and now exploring far and wide, and have massively advanced my tech by having 3 spies with 95% success rate each mission stealing knowledge from the pirates
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on April 16, 2022, 10:48:59 PM
What is the guide that DW2 Mike referred to on the podcast--the one that recommended which AI settings to turn off when you start learning the game?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 17, 2022, 07:38:37 AM
I don’t know the guide he refers to but I’ve heard a lot of people using ‘Scott’s guide’

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4969382#p4969382

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on April 17, 2022, 11:45:01 AM
I don’t know the guide he refers to but I’ve heard a lot of people using ‘Scott’s guide’

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4969382#p4969382

Danke.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 22, 2022, 12:38:25 PM
Has anyone seen any new official information from Matrix on updates?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 23, 2022, 02:24:34 PM
No.  And I've been checking the website (and the forums) a couple times a week. 

Marco said there will be more info about DW2 during the Home of Wargamers event next month, so I have a feeling we may not hear anything official (and/or substantial) until then. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 23, 2022, 06:18:38 PM
That's what's frustrating.  This is as bad a pre release information.

I get that Paradox has issues on game/dlc release day, but they communicate and stay on top of them.  Even if you don't see a patch for a few weeks, they're talking to you about what their focusing the next patch. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 24, 2022, 02:30:32 AM
Agreed.  The -- continued? resumed? -- information blackout is beyond frustrating. 


Granted, they are putting out beta updates at least 1-2 times a week still.  But we don't get anything beyond that, no roadmap or concrete info on future development. 

I don't think I've ever had more sympathy for the angry Warhammer 3 fans than I do currently...   


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 24, 2022, 04:33:31 AM
To be fair Erik did post a statement about the slowdown in comms and focus on patching a few weeks back.
Its also Spring now so family time and recreational events will happen for the families of the devs too. They are but men. :)

Patience and all will be right in due time.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 24, 2022, 10:09:52 PM
Thanks Yskonyn. I had missed the beta thread. Link to it below

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=382601
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 25, 2022, 03:30:20 PM
Had my first ship out of fuel after getting damaged fighting a space beastie - do you simply build a fuel tanker and send it there? Does it auto fill with fuel - if i left it on auto would it take fuel to the stricken ship - which somehow after 30 mins sorted itself out and flew off anyway!

And after about 8 hours gaming now, and exploring maybe 15 systems i still havent found a suitable colony if im sticking to the 20% rule - this sound normal?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on April 25, 2022, 04:50:29 PM
Had my first ship out of fuel after getting damaged fighting a space beastie - do you simply build a fuel tanker and send it there? Does it auto fill with fuel - if i left it on auto would it take fuel to the stricken ship - which somehow after 30 mins sorted itself out and flew off anyway!

Tankers are busticated to be honest. Ship to ship refuelling just sucks, the implementation is horrible. Ships without fuel can still travel at 33% speed, so if you try to send a tanker to it, it will play an endless game of warp in, fail to catch up, go back to warp to try again. Repeat until both ships reach the destination anyway. All you do is tie up two ships instead of one.

Quote
And after about 8 hours gaming now, and exploring maybe 15 systems i still havent found a suitable colony if im sticking to the 20% rule - this sound normal?

That does sound a bit on the unlucky side, although by the time I shelved the game in my latest run, I'd only found one other suitable planet.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 26, 2022, 02:56:15 AM
Tankers were / are pretty broken indeed .

Last two patches (iirc) there has been some fleet behaviour fixes, but havent been able to check what their status is yet.

Fleet and Tanker behaviour is on the priority list however, so we should see improvements coming fairly soon.

15 systems and only one suitable colony sounds unlucky. But it has to be said that DW2 has made it more difficult to colonize without spending research first as well. Check your techtree.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 26, 2022, 03:42:44 AM
Fleet and Tanker behaviour is on the priority list however, so we should see improvements coming fairly soon.

Not for at least another two weeks, I bet.  (Though for players' sakes, hopefully I'm wrong.) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 26, 2022, 08:13:54 AM
Dear Lord someone help me…….

I’ve designed ‘support frigate’ all sexy torpedos and missiles, set to cautious to sit at the back and launch the doom

Then I ‘copy as new’ and create the ‘close in frigate’ all ion cannons and in your face, set to aggressive but this overwrites the support frigate so do it again and it overwrites the other way…… sob

How do I make 2 different frigates 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 26, 2022, 11:16:40 AM
By default, the list of ship builds is set to Latest.  Change your filter to Buildable.  Also, you should see both available at one of your shipyards.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 26, 2022, 12:01:45 PM
If you want several models of the same type be sure to disable auto upgrades and auto retrofit.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 26, 2022, 04:02:44 PM
Yeah it worked thanks

And the missile boats stood off which made me smile
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 26, 2022, 04:44:11 PM
Version 1.0.3.7 has gone live (I noticed my game just updated): 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-latest-update-1037




Quote
Here's what's new:

CRASH FIXES
- reduced likelihood of hangs before autosaving
- added fix for rare memory corruption when animating space creatures
- fixed crash when adding diplomatic incident
- fixed crash when updating ship engine exhaust
- fixed crash when calculating ship collision avoidance
- fixed crash when resolving character mission location description
- fixed crash when drawing troop summary
- fixed crash when determining resource prices
- fixed crash when determining fleet systems within engagement range
- fixed crash when evaluating threats to ship or base
- fixed crash when fixing ships in a location
- fixed crash when updating location for fighters onboard a carrier
- fixed crash when rendering message
- fixed crash when firing weapons
- fixed crash when rendering character traits
- fixed crash when determining retrofit resources for a ship or base
- fixed crash when finding nearest refuelling point
- fixed crash when drawing empire relation in diplomacy screen
- fixed crash when determining empire mining targets
- fixed rare crash when loading some older savegames
- fixed crash when switching camera modes
- reworked some rendering to further minimize DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crashes
- fixed crash when evaluating threats
- fixed crash when calculating location visibility level
- fixed crash when rendering research screen
- fixed crash when examining recent trade deals
- fixed crash when extracting resources
- fixed crash when identifying independent repair bases
- fixed crash when fulfilling resource orders
- fixed crash when sorting items while determining mining targets
- fixed crash when executing action
- fixed crash when calculating construction yard wait time
- fixed crash when identifying refuelling points
- fixed crash when rendering ship or base summary
- fixed crash when drawing construction yard summary
- fixed crash when updating ship engine exhaust
- fixed crash when preparing ship for retrofit
- fixed crash when changing ship empire
- fixed crash when obtaining fleet template designs per role
- fixed crash when auto-assigning scout mission to exploration ship
- fixed crash when launching assault pod
- fixed crash when updating user interface controls
- fixed crash when refreshing graphics setup
- fixed crash when checking whether ship is in battle
- fixed crash when checking for appearance of hive threat
- fixed crash when completing ship command
- fixed crash when planet removed in game editor
- fixed crash when calculating ship collision avoidance
- fixed crash when drawing system exploration data
- fixed crash when drawing system summary
- fixed crash when editing bonuses in game editor
- fixed crash when drawing research button
- fixed crash when updating tourism/migration/resource flow data
- fixed crash when adding diplomatic relation incident
- fixed crash when rendering creature effects
- fixed crash when rendering map overlay buttons
- fixed crash when reviewing army templates
- fixed crash when updating character bonuses
- fixed crash when processing ships and bases
- fixed crash when inflicting ion damage from nebula storms
- fixed crash when removing weapon blast from location
- fixed crash when ship unloads passengers
- fixed crash when generating new character
- fixed crash when building facility
- updated Harmony library to resolve some problems

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- improved general performance, especially in very large games
- further adjustments to some map overlays to improve performance (long range scanners, exploration, diplomacy)
- added new default system badge mode (Basic) with smaller, simplified badges when zoomed out to galaxy level. Extended mode is same as previous Basic mode
- improved general performance relating to fleet operations
- fixed occasional hang when fleets bombard colonies
- fixed occasional performance 'stuttering'
- fixed ship movement sometimes being jerky when zoom into same location
- improved rendering performance for map overlays: exploration, diplomacy long range scanners

SYSTEM BADGES AND MAP OVERLAYS
- fixed clickable regions for new basic system badges
- ensure map buttons retain highlight state when apply changes to graphics settings
- altered map overlay buffer format (long range scanners, exploration, diplomacy) to improve overlay opacity and visibility

SAVEGAMES
- updated autosave timer logic to ensure save at specified intervals. Reminder that paused time does not count towards autosave interval
- now check for low disk space when saving game and send warning message if needed
- more graceful handling of savegame failures for whatever reason

OTHER CHANGES
- fixed slow initial zoom-in when start new game
- now purge old low-priority empire messages
- altered texture streaming memory budget to be more generous when no shared system memory allocated
- waypointing ships now properly slow to a stop while waiting for other fleet ships to arrive
- fixed bug when performing jump pathfinding
- fixed colony bombardment ship range when colony has long range defensive weapons (previously ships were too cautious to approach colony when tactics were Evade)
- updated values for planetary shield facilities
- data fixes to allow planetary destroyer to be built again
- fixed Load Fleet Template dialog to properly load from FleetTemplates sub-folder (same folder as Save Fleet Template)
- exploration and diplomacy map overlays now auto-enable when in relevant UI area
- long range scanner, exploration and diplomacy map overlays now more opaque
- The resource and credit discount on Planet Destroyer hulls has come to an end
- Ship hull fixes for certain freighters and transports
- Fixes to component data typos and some tweaks some of which affect the permissible slot sizes for certain late game weapons
- Additional story event fixes
- Fixes for some facility upgrade issues due to incorrect IDs in the facility data


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 26, 2022, 04:50:05 PM
New update keeps switching on diplomatic and exploration filters - switch off - switches on again

Not the end of the world
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 26, 2022, 05:10:05 PM
I’ve finally found a planet at 18 but it’s too far away to colonise(?) - there’s a range limit - tears of sorrow

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 27, 2022, 01:44:55 AM
I have had one or two starts like that. Just restart man. Its no fun.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 27, 2022, 07:58:07 PM
Agreed.  For all that the Distant Worlds series is less about colony-spamming than most 4x games -- a fact I genuinely appreciate -- you're still ultimately at a disadvantage if you can't spread from your homeworld *at all*. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 27, 2022, 09:21:21 PM
I wish I could see what starting parameters I set

If I go back to start new game I thought it might have my last choices saved but I don’t think it does I’m wondering if I clicked rare for similar planets

I’ve found the in game editor and can simply plop a decent planet halfway between me and the proper one - just feels a bit dirty - I’ll research the colonisation options for living on different planets - see how we do 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 27, 2022, 10:16:34 PM
I wish I could see what starting parameters I set

If I go back to start new game I thought it might have my last choices saved but I don’t think it does I’m wondering if I clicked rare for similar planets

Hmm.  I just checked, and DW2 saves my previous game settings, so it *should* be doing the same for you as well.  Odd. 

I kept habitable planets on the default setting, so as to hopefully experience the game in as "balanced" a state as possible. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 27, 2022, 11:07:13 PM
Hmmm ok I’ll have another look

I know I used the setup in Scott’s guide and he opts for rare - I’m sure I’d look at that and think nah and the options are the default by the look of things - it may just be a bad setup but I want to carry on - it’s a learning game
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 29, 2022, 05:35:32 AM
.....and with 'its a learning game' the litte red, behorned, trident carrying martok on my shoulder assuaged my guilt and convinced me to add a compatible moon to colonise between me and the games real offering - and were off to 'learn' about colonising shit
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on April 29, 2022, 02:59:26 PM
New beta version out 1.0.3.9 which works on fleet behaviour and refueling.
Its expected to have a few more beta patches before this is pushed to release, but at least know that some fleet behaviour is being looked into at the moment.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on April 29, 2022, 06:57:29 PM
A nice 902 MB update. 

Quote
Changes in 1.0.3.9:

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- improved performance when calculating construction yard wait times, especially for large games

FLEETS
- fixed Prepare and Attack fleet missions to properly evaluate need to refuel
- fleets now wait for all fighters to board carriers before hyperjumping
- fighters boarding carriers now move at maximum speed when returning to carrier from far away
- fleets now more careful to have enough available ships when auto-assigning attacks against targets
- fleets more careful about completing attack missions (e.g. raid) when all fleet ships have completed the mission type
- ensure disable action buttons when select fleet of another empire

COLONIZATION, MIGRATION AND TOURISM
- improved selection of queued colonization targets by existing colony ships that already have population loaded. Will now also unload population if necessary so that can load more suitable population from existing colonies
- added new mission type to unload passengers for colony ships with colonists onboard. Access by selecting colony ship and right-clicking on one of your empire's colonies for pop-up mission list
- altered auto-assigned migration missions to prefer higher suitability destination colonies
- tourism missions now properly ignore colony population policy settings (tourism to destinations with policy of Do Not Accept, etc)
- further improved race selection for new colonies, even for independent colonies, i.e. attempt to use most suitable race

OTHER CHANGES
- tweaked default design templates for colony ships and troop transports to maximize chance of sufficient reactor energy output to power hyperdrives at
full speed and thus extend travel range
- fixed exploration ships sometimes pausing exploration of home system when have not yet found fuel source
- fixed black hole vortex range so that exploration ships can properly complete mission
- suppress incorrect initial mouse-up when enter research screen from main view header (would sometimes incorrectly queue the hovered research project)
- fixed faulty weapon damage graph for tractor beams in Ship Design screen
- fixed fighters sometimes incorrectly boarding carriers and then immediately relaunching
- disabled ships (cannot move) no longer count as threats and thus do not show up on threats list or block colonization or construction at the location
- fixed bug where destinations were sometimes failing to receive resources via freighter

ART BUNDLE CHANGES
- fixed various issues in the art bundles with incorrect texture sizes as well as uncompressed or unstreamed texture settings
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 30, 2022, 05:47:45 AM
^  It does look like a decent list of changes & improvements.  It'll be interesting to see how much of a difference they actually make.  Fingers crossed! 




.....and with 'its a learning game' the litte red, behorned, trident carrying martok on my shoulder assuaged my guilt and convinced me to add a compatible moon to colonise between me and the games real offering - and were off to 'learn' about colonising shit

 :bigthumb: 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on April 30, 2022, 06:34:22 AM
My very last game of stellaris included a fleet of cruisers and battleships and 2 carriers that would rather sexily stay at the back and launch a huge wave of bombers to decimate capital ships - I loved it - I hope that can be reproduced here
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 01, 2022, 03:41:23 AM
Would love to know the results.  While admittedly haven't fought many battles yet, the few I have gotten into mostly felt like general scrums. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 01, 2022, 01:31:03 PM
Dear Lord someone help me…….

I’ve designed ‘support frigate’ all sexy torpedos and missiles, set to cautious to sit at the back and launch the doom

Then I ‘copy as new’ and create the ‘close in frigate’ all ion cannons and in your face, set to aggressive but this overwrites the support frigate so do it again and it overwrites the other way…… sob

How do I make 2 different frigates

Ok, so my question is, how do you get both types into a fleet design.  I'm only seeing how to add one class of each type.  In other words, I can only attached either my gun escort or my missile escort, but not both
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 01, 2022, 01:39:30 PM
Have you put them in a fleet?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 01, 2022, 06:45:45 PM
Sorry, should have been more specific.  I'm trying to add a gun class escort and a missile class escort to the fleet template.  I'm not seeing how this can be done.  You can choose either one or the other, but not both.  Or at least from what I'm seeing.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 02, 2022, 01:56:40 AM
Ah fleet template shenanigans - not been there yet

This thread seems to be full of people with same complaint and it looks like it’s recorded as a bug

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=380917

That was March so I guess it’s not high enough up the list yet unless a beta has fixed it
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 02, 2022, 04:57:35 AM
Yeah, from what I've seen, I don't think that's currently possible (though it obviously should be). 




One of the guys on Explorminate's Discord went on a bit of monologue that highlights a lot of the game's current problems with fleets.  Here's the most relevant/insightful part: 

Quote
First of all, ship tactics set in the design editor are not linked to ships using that design. THis means any changes to tactics have to be done by selecting each ship individually.

The alternative is to override at the fleet level which precludes say a carrier set to evade while an attack ship is set to aggressive

Second is the design of fleets. One design per role isn't enough.

Each design needs to be it's own "line" vs one "line" per role.

Finally the interplay of fleet automation, ship tactics, and fleet tactics are unclear. This leads to single ships retreating when you don't want them to or engaging when you don't want them to, or not engaging at all.

So lets say, early game I want my escorts to run away after popping off missiles before they get hit. I set that in the design

Great.

Now as the game progresses I want my escorts in fleets.

Well, what ends up happening is that the fleet jumps in, and those escorts book it away at the first sign of trouble.

Now to fix this I have to select each escort one by one and change their settings or override at the fleet level.

Another example is setting roles. Either the fleet overrides these as needed or I have to manually change every ship that was built prior to changing the design from Attack to Close Escort

So if I had to wager, the issue isn't with you on setting up fleets, it's with how the systems in DW2 are set up and interact with each other creating significant friction against making ANY changes that don't involve fleet settings or overrides.

The result is a blob vs a fleet with roles





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 02, 2022, 06:05:01 AM
I’ve watched a video that addresses a few issues or at least explains why some things happen and others don’t  particularly the ship behaviour at individual level and fleet level with regards to engagement rules when on auto - I can maybe see a patch in the future that dumbs down the amount of choices you can make here as it’s clear too many is complicating the ai
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 02, 2022, 09:41:40 AM
I’ve watched a video that addresses a few issues or at least explains why some things happen and others don’t  particularly the ship behaviour at individual level and fleet level with regards to engagement rules when on auto - I can maybe see a patch in the future that dumbs down the amount of choices you can make here as it’s clear too many is complicating the ai

Can you link that video.

I think the amount of choices that a provided are good.  But it says a lot that the interface doesn't help the player with getting things right that seems more the issue. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 02, 2022, 10:37:31 AM
Sure

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-6kbVzHAq9M

Think this is the guy that wrote the famous intro guide
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 02, 2022, 12:08:28 PM
Thanks UCG
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 02, 2022, 12:27:00 PM
No worries buddy
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 03, 2022, 03:00:44 PM
so the game has taken an upward swing in activity - not to say i couldnt have watched little ships going everywhere for hours on end


all in all still loving it - no game breakers yet
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 03, 2022, 07:06:02 PM
Apparently in response to some comments made yesterday by folks (including myself) on Explorminate's Discord, Erik Rutins dropped in for a bit.  Here's what he had to say: 


Quote
There are some significant gameplay issues we did not spot before release, but gameplay issues are relatively easy to fix.  I'm confident we'll be able to resolve those pretty quickly whenever we have time to focus on the gameplay side.  I don't see more than 4-6 weeks of gameplay work based on the reports so far, it's just been a lower priority to date because of the critical issues on some systems with crashes and performance.   Those are my bigger concerns - the technical issues that are still causing issues on those systems (of course not on any of our systems).  We've already tried just about everything short of a major engine upgrade to fix those.  Thus, the next step there is a major engine upgrade, probably in about a couple of weeks but it's really quite concerning that these exist at all and that most can't be reproduced on our systems.  In any case, I have read the feedback here and I'm sorry many feel let down, but I completely understand.  It's disappointing to us as well as we thought we were releasing a generally solid game that would only get better post-release and in fact we delayed release twice internally just to make sure it would be solid.  It's clear in hindsight that we had some blind spots and also hadn't appropriately prioritized or fully understood some of the feedback we had received during testing.  Along with fixing game issues, we're also trying to address those blind spots for the future.  DW2 will get to a much better state, probably within a month or two, but especially for those customers experiencing the critical crash/performance issues, we're very sorry this turned into a source of frustration for them rather than entertainment.



When asked, "Are you pushing to hit zero crash and performance or is there a percentage you're ok living with?" 

Quote
I don't think it's realistic for any game that has decent sales these days to reach absolute zero given the wide variety of possible system configurations, many of which have issues that are not something we can fix.   It's clear though that right now DW2 still has issues on some systems that are fine with the vast majority of other 3D games.  We're aiming to make sure those are resolved, which will likely leave a very small percentage of systems that are either below minimum spec or have some kind of truly weird setup or conflicting software issues, but that's the case with almost any game.  That's the point though where it will transition from a very high immediate priority to a more long-term ongoing task.



Replying to the question, "Do you have any metrics for how close you are to that goal [mentioned above?" 

Quote
Some, but as much qualitative as quantitative.  Forum and e-mail and Discord feedback of course gives us a sense of how much each update has improved the situation and what major problems remain unresolved.  The automated crash reporting does give us some insight into the pace/frequency/volume and type of crashes that are at least generating logs (these have decreased very significantly with 1.0.3.7 and later).  The reporting form does the same, just selecting for those willing to send us a report.  The critical issues survey gives us some insight into the perceptions of customers with issues on what they see as the major remaining issue areas.





So my main takeaways here are: 

- The game is working much better since the 1.0.3.7 patch, at least on a technical level. 

- Their current focus is still more on fixing/patching out technical issues, including a (probable) eventual engine upgrade. 

- Therefore, focus probably won't turn towards addressing gameplay/mechanics issues for at least another few weeks.  Once it does, we're likely looking at a good couple months or so to hammer out the worst problems.  (Yes, I know he said 4-6 weeks, but we all know perfectly well it'll end up taking longer than that.) 

- Ergo, I can safely ignore DW2 until at lest August, if not later.  At this point, I think that's just as well. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on May 04, 2022, 06:42:09 AM
I mean, blind spots is an explanation I guess, although indicative of a severe lack of QC/playtesting. My usual example of refuelling (can you tell it's my biggest problem with the game?) is a perfect example; it's so horribly flawed and so easy to see, I have to wonder what they did test.

- Ergo, I can safely ignore DW2 until at lest August, if not later.  At this point, I think that's just as well.

Yeah, same here. Again: I really want to love this game. I want it to be my go-to space strategy for years.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 04, 2022, 06:47:59 AM
Balls - the private sector has run out of cash - it never occurred to me that mining stations would be a cherry picking exercise not a ‘build every station everywhere forever’ this and the fact that I now have 4 highly trained spies constantly stealing tech off a pirate faction that I’ve kept alive solely for this purpose - I can only assume I’m getting thru the research tree too quick - all the civ ships come back to be retro fitted and by the time they get back to their assignment it’s time to come back and be retro fitted again costing the private sector a fortune
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 04, 2022, 12:22:34 PM
Geek,  are you designing your ships or letting the AI do it.  Right now DW2 is kind of frustrating in that you can either allow the AI to design/upgrade all ships/bases, or you can do it yourself.  In DWU, you could pick which types of ships/bases you designed and which the AI managed.  The screenshot below is from DWU.  It's frustrating because I would like to design my own military units but allow the AI to manage the civilian designs. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 04, 2022, 03:13:34 PM
I’m designing the military ones - there’s a few tweaks I could make to the civ ones but I haven’t bothered
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on May 04, 2022, 03:58:42 PM
I've just recently started playing and haven't really dived too deeply into it.

However, according to my Steam account, the game never closes when I quit and is still RUNNING. I am at 50+ hours of playtime according to Steam, when it's actually probably 4 or 5 at most.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 04, 2022, 06:32:44 PM
I’m designing the military ones - there’s a few tweaks I could make to the civ ones but I haven’t bothered

So there is a way to let the AI design civilian ships and the player to design military ships.  I need to watch those videos.   :-[
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 04, 2022, 06:56:09 PM
I haven’t gone anywhere near the civ ones - I want to because the AI arms them and I want them just to run if there’s trouble

But so far if I research advanced tech the AI recalls them all and upgrades them without my input
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 04, 2022, 07:22:28 PM
I haven’t gone anywhere near the civ ones - I want to because the AI arms them and I want them just to run if there’s trouble

But so far if I research advanced tech the AI recalls them all and upgrades them without my input

Interesting.  So if you send design to manual, then the AI is automatically updating civilian ships?  I'll need to play around with that.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 04, 2022, 07:46:49 PM
👍👍
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 05, 2022, 01:11:15 PM
I just started a new game, using the 1.0.3.9 Beta Patch.  I set ship design to manual.  But when I researched Skip Drives, I don't see my civilian ships upgrading to include that tech.  And yes, I've waited a few game months.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 05, 2022, 02:56:37 PM
On the ship design screen where it names the model number of all the ships, and if it’s set to manual or auto design, retrofit and upgrade what does it say for each civilian model design
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 05, 2022, 05:14:27 PM
I don't think this is accurate.  They all say Automatic under design.  However, I manually added Skip Drives to my construction and explorer ships. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 05, 2022, 06:00:54 PM
That’s odd - looks exactly the same as mine and as soon as there’s a relevant component update they all head back into the workshop

Working now - when I’m back I’ll take a look at my empire manual settings - as a heads up I used exactly what’s in the first few pages of that guide by Scott
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on May 06, 2022, 09:42:49 PM
How common is it to find planets that are suitable for colonization?

I have fully explored 25 systems and partially explored 37, but I haven't found anything suitable for colonization yet.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 06, 2022, 11:52:14 PM
What your Colony Prevalence set to.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 07, 2022, 03:13:53 AM
Had exactly the same problem

‘Think’ it was on normal - I found one in 32 systems but then added a planet using the editor and shrugged off the guilt by convincing myself this was a learning play through

I would say if this is the normal setting id up it another level
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 07, 2022, 05:08:21 AM
I just noticed Erik posted this in the Discord yesterday afternoon: 


Quote
Just a quick note to say that Elliot has been sick for a week and that has slowed down our update schedule and plans. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon and we'll be able to resume the planned update schedule next week.



Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on May 08, 2022, 01:07:07 PM
What your Colony Prevalence set to.

Not sure. Either the default or whatever "Scott" recommends in his guide.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 08, 2022, 02:38:00 PM
Just checked - Scott’s set up is very rare
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: TTC on May 08, 2022, 02:55:03 PM
Just checked - Scott’s set up is very rare

Hmmm... yeah.

Well maybe this is a good enough reason for me to restart anyway since I'm still figuring out a lot.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 08, 2022, 02:58:08 PM
You can add planets or moons using the editor if you’re enjoying this game
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: vyshka on May 08, 2022, 04:17:06 PM
I just noticed Erik posted this in the Discord yesterday afternoon: 


Quote
Just a quick note to say that Elliot has been sick for a week and that has slowed down our update schedule and plans. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon and we'll be able to resume the planned update schedule next week.

Hopefully he feels better soon. I imagine the past few weeks have been stressful for Elliot. Even with the issues I'm still amazed it is one person programming the Distant Worlds games.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 11, 2022, 02:59:16 PM
couple of hours further in - i have rescued 2 of the destroyers from the ship graveyard, these are just the destroyers mind which i was going to ignore as i can build my own - i join them with my fleet of frigates and go gravilax hunting and pirate hunting - fleet jumps into system, my ships do the little we've just arrived dance, give us a minute, the destroyers head off - from half the map away they launch god knows what and the gravillax is dead before my guys have finished making tea - there are 3 cruisers and 3 carriers still been repaired in the cemetery!! The turtle guys turned too late and started fixing the troop transports - unless theres Dark Angels on board i think i made the right choice

Getting on well with the turtles, scouting for the Teekans and still stealing tech from the pirates - i have 5 colonies now across 4 systems and were building a ship for another one

experienced my first CTD today with the game - nothing spectacular, just farted and quit out - went back in, triggered the same scenario and had no problem
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 11, 2022, 03:21:41 PM
What I am trying to work out is how to determine what gets loaded into the starfighter bay - I did just want bombers but it’s defaulted to a 50/50 mix of fighters and bombers - I deliberately didn’t research fighters so this wouldn’t happen
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 11, 2022, 08:52:18 PM
Posted by Erik early today in the Matrix forums: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4996161#p4996161

Quote
Hi everyone,

Elliot has recovered and we're working on a new beta update for the end of this week.  Our focus remains on reported issues with fleet and ship behavior in certain situations and with certain combinations of settings, including tanker behavior and tactical setting interactions.

Regards,

- Erik



Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 12, 2022, 06:54:48 AM
Another bump on the road -

Now I’m multi cultured I have a range of colonisation options - so I find a volcanic planet that the boskarans would love to live on, I have a planet with 128m boskarans in and 58m humans - the humans would hate to live on the new planet - I build a colony ship and there appears to be no way to just load the boskarans
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on May 12, 2022, 12:59:26 PM
Another bump on the road -

Now I’m multi cultured I have a range of colonisation options - so I find a volcanic planet that the boskarans would love to live on, I have a planet with 128m boskarans in and 58m humans - the humans would hate to live on the new planet - I build a colony ship and there appears to be no way to just load the boskarans

I think that's a know issue.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 14, 2022, 03:20:58 AM
Version 1.0.4.1 is now available via beta (Steam and GOG).  It's supposed to address numerous issues regarding fleet behavior: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=383383&sid=d7a8327af208803752443f744043e326




As for myself, I've uninstalled DW2 for now.  I figure I might take another look at the game come autumn, or (more likely) next year, depending on how things have progressed. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on May 14, 2022, 03:53:21 AM
Quote
- Fuel Tankers now more careful to avoid attempting to refuel ships that will soon enter hyperspace, instead prefer idle ships or ships that have already reached mission destination

That's an improvement, but honestly what I'd prefer to see is ships without fuel being unable to warp at all.

Anyway, fleet improvements overall are what's desperately needed so I'm glad this is finally being addressed. I might try a quick game once this patch makes it into the main build.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 14, 2022, 07:16:58 AM
My game is on hold because I suspect these big boy beta ones won’t be save game friendly
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 27, 2022, 03:34:07 AM
A new beta patch is available.  Looks fairly beefy. 


Quote
Changes in 1.0.4.7:

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- improved general performance, especially in very large late-game galaxies

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- fixed some additional situations where fleets would not engage threats properly
- broadened Guard mission so that fleets/ships will engage threats at same location, even when threat is not currently attacking guard target
- further tweaked carrier speed lower while waiting for fighters to board when preparing for hyperjump
- ensure Tactical Settings dialog closes when select ship or fleet of another empire

FUEL TANKERS
- additional tweaks to Fuel Tanker evaluation of when to refuel various ship roles, e.g. exploration ships now not refuelled until lower fuel level, thus spending less time waiting for fuel tankers
- ensure properly exclude fuel tankers when generating action button for fleet retrofit (fleet fuel tankers operate independently and retrofit on their own schedule)

RESOURCES
- fixed bases built at independent colonies (e.g. research stations) incorrectly using cargo, stock levels and cargo capacities of parent colony (should only do so when parent colony is own empire)
- ensured Resources and Stock Levels dialog does not incorrectly indicate that some resource amounts on hand are below the stock level
- Resources and Stock Levels dialog now includes explanatory note about foreign sources in tooltip for Mined and Known Locations
- colonies now always attempt to stock super luxury resources when available (Korabbian Spice, Loros Fruit, Zentabia Fluid), even when they can meet their target development level through other, more accessible luxury resources

CHARACTER SKILLS
- character skills at a location are now applied with diminishing values. Thus the best character for a skill applies 100% of their skill level, but all subsequent characters only apply a steadily diminishing proportion of their skill for that area (thus 100%, 50%, 25%, etc). This means that is is often better to spread characters across multiple locations instead of concentrating them at a single location, e.g. admirals and generals in multiple fleets, scientists in multiple research stations, etc.
- updated Galactopedia topic Characters to explain diminishing character skills for a location
- slowed growth of character skill levels

ECONOMY AND CONSTRUCTION
- ensure automated construction does not build too many ships at once (minimize big swings in cash on hand, etc)
- ensure tourism destinations are selected more evenly by passenger ships (resort bases + scenic colonies)

EMPIRE BONUSES
- all maintenance savings bonuses now applied by dividing by (1 + bonus amount) instead of multiplying by bonus amount (ship maintenance, troop maintenance, planetary facility maintenance). This means that maintenance savings can never be greater than full maintenance costs (no negative maintenance)
- fixed some bonus types being applied incorrectly (TroopRecoveryRate, ShipEnergyUsage)
- ensure that empire-wide bonuses from research are properly integrated into overall empire bonuses (e.g. Troop Maintenance Savings from Improved Logistics project, etc)

INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
- decreased success chance for intelligence missions. Diminishing value begins at 75% instead of previous 90%. Thus spies must have much higher skill levels to reach high success chance

COLONIZATION
- now exclude Colony Ships as available to colonize new colony while loading colonists (assign mission button in New Colonies list)
- when colonization range limits are enforced (game startup settings) now use straight-line distance to evaluate whether potential colony is in range of existing colonies (instead of path time, which caused issues when potential colonies were in nebulae)

OTHER CHANGES
- fixed text display bug for colony events reported as Galaxy News (Patriotic Wave, Predictive History, etc)
- limit maximum number of items displayed in Summary View (bottom-middle of screen) at galaxy level (colonies, spaceports, fleets) to ensure that on lower resolution displays this does not become overwhelming in the late game




Erik also said the next public/official update will probably be going live on Tuesday (May 31). 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on May 27, 2022, 06:24:57 AM
Quite a substantive list!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 27, 2022, 07:57:45 AM
Dad tactic has an hour long video discussing the changes whilst getting ready to start a new game - there’s no new game footage - just discussion of this new beta patch
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on May 27, 2022, 09:36:18 AM
I'll fire up a new game once the stable branch has been updated.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 31, 2022, 02:46:49 PM
Well it looks like Huw can finally dust off the game again.  A major (public) update just dropped: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-major-update-v-1048




As it's a composite/accumulation of all the changes made during the beta updates over the past month, it's safe to say the patch notes are quite extensive... 

Spoiler: ShowHide
Quote

We are glad to announce the new Major Update for Distant Worlds 2, this update will feature many gameplay fixes and improvements to Fleet and Ship Behavior (including Fuel Tankers and Starfighters), the Private Economy and Resource distribution, Intelligence MIssions, Colonization and Migration, Tourism, Character skills.  Also, some significant performance improvements, especially for the late game.

We hope you like it, enjoy and let us know what do you think about it.

Changes in 1.0.4.8:

This update includes many improvements in fleet coordination and fleet and ship behavior. Some of the issues addresses were due to bugs in the game, but others were due to confusion caused by unclear labeling or explanation on our part, which the below documentation and changes should resolve. Please read through the explanations below as well as the change list to fully understand how fleet and ship tactical settings are meant to function.

Fleet Engagement Range vs. Engagement Range

There is now Fleet Engagement Range (re-named) at the fleet level and Engagement Range at the ship level.
When a ship is in a fleet, the Fleet Engagement Range will override the ship's Engagement Range.  The ship will only use its own Engagement Range when it is not in a Fleet.
The Fleet Engagement Range determines at a strategic level what missions/targets the fleet is in range of taking on.  Previously, there was a gap at the system level where fleet and ship engagement ranges could conflict or override each other, which would result in the most restrictive of the two being used. That has been resolved. Now, if there is a target in the system and there is a fleet in the system with Fleet Engagement Range that would allow attacking within that system, the fleet will go attack that target as a fleet even if the individual ship settings would not allow individual ships to respond.

Manual Fleets and Military Attack Policies

It's important to note that a Manual fleet will not automatically respond outside of its own system. DW2 assumes that a Manual fleet is fully under manual orders for anything out of system. If you would like a fleet to automatically respond outside of its own system, it needs to be set to one of the Automatic fleet roles (for example, Attack or Defend) and its Fleet Engagement Range must allow it.
Also, if you have your Military Attacks Policy in the Military section of your policies set to Manual, then no fleets of any kind will respond or attack outside their own systems without being manually ordered to do so.
In order to have fleets fully responding outside their systems, you need to have:

1. Fleet Engagement Ranges set to allow it
2. Each Fleet needs to be set to one of the Automatic roles
3. The Military Attacks policy cannot be set to Manual

By default, all these things are true, but if you have changed these settings please be aware of their intended interactions and results.

Fleet Attack Stance

This was no longer performing any necessary function given the other settings and their capabilities. It was however adding confusion for players, so it was removed.

Fleet Retreat Strategy

There was an issue preventing this working as intended, which should now be resolved.  It should also be noted that this has a different function than the Retreat When setting at the ship level. It was therefore renamed to Fleet Retreat Strategy to avoid confusion.
Fleet Retreat Strategy affects when the entire fleet will consider changing orders to escape a location based on overall strength comparison at that location. Individual ships will still follow their Retreat When setting in terms of responding to damage caused to that ship.
Note that Manual fleets will not at this time retreat as a fleet unless ordered to do so by the player. This is working as intended, as we generally lean towards manual meaning that the player has full control and gets to decide when the fleet retreats. All automated fleets will respect the Fleet Retreat Strategy.

Position within Fleet

We realized that the previous UI terminology used "Role" in two different instances. Role now refers only to the general type of ship (i.e. Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser).
The position of a ship in a fleet within the fleet formation is now more intuitively called "Position within Fleet" in the ship's tactical settings. The previous "Attack" has been renamed to "Core" to make it more clear that this position is in the center of the fleet, whereas "Close Escort" is the inner ring and "Picket" is the outer ring of the formation. In most cases, we recommend placing your point defense-oriented ships in the Picket or Close Escort positions and keeping your most valuable Capital ships and long-range standoff ships in the Core.

Ship Tactical Setting Apply Buttons

We recognized that the importance of the tactical settings at the ship level was not matched by the UI in terms of the ease of adjusting them post-construction. There are now three new buttons available for any ship in a fleet:

- Apply these tactical settings to all ships of this design in the fleet
- Apply these tactical settings to all ships of this role in the fleet
- Apply these tactical settings to all ships of this position in the fleet
- Apply these tactical settings to all ships in the fleet

This only affects the ship level tactical setting. You can see these by selecting a ship that is in a fleet and looking at its tactical settings.
We also plan to add the ability to mass apply tactical setting changes whenever multiple ships are selected through any method in the future.


PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- improved general performance, especially in very large late-game galaxies
- fixed rare bug that was sometimes slowing general game performance
- improved performance when calculating construction yard wait times, especially for large games

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- fixed Prepare and Attack fleet missions to properly evaluate need to refuel
- fleets now more permissive when evaluating Prepare and Attack missions. If sufficient fleet ships in target system and can handle attack against target then less inclined to first refuel or gather. In other words, now more likely to attack targets in same system directly without first refuelling or gathering, even when some fleet ships are dispersed or need refuelling
- fleets now wait for all fighters to board carriers before hyperjumping
- when preparing to hyperjump, carriers now move more slowly while waiting for all fighters to board, thus making it easier for fighters to catch up with carrier
- fighters boarding carriers now move at maximum speed when returning to carrier from far away
- fixed fighters sometimes incorrectly boarding carriers and then immediately relaunching
- fleets now more careful to have enough available ships when auto-assigning attacks against targets
- fleets more careful about completing attack missions (e.g. raid) when all fleet ships have completed the mission type
- ensure disable action buttons when select fleet of another empire
- fixed some additional situations where fleets would not engage threats properly
- broadened Guard mission so that fleets/ships will engage threats at same location, even when threat is not currently attacking guard target
- fixed bug where fleet engagement range was sometimes not properly overriding ship engagement range
- ensure fleets properly use fleet engagement range when evaluating whether to attack targets (i.e. do not downgrade to use each ship's engagement range)
- manually assigning refuel/repair/retrofit missions to automated fleets no longer immediately changes their role to Manual. All other mission types remain the same and will automatically change their role to Manual if currently automated (Attack, Defend, Raid, Invade)
- fixed bug where fleets would sometimes not engage threats, even when within engagement range
- ensure that automated fleets do not get caught in attack/retreat loop
- fixed manually assigning Guard missions to fleets sometimes not being assigned to individual fleet ships
- when investigating dangerous locations fleets are now more careful to ensure have adequate strength to handle expected threats
- ship missions that require docking at a colony (e.g. load/unload troops, load/unload colonists, etc) now more flexible about ship position, does not necessarily need to move to new position if already close to planet. This change helps these mission types complete faster
- troops reserved for pickup by troop transport now immediately unreserved when transport destroyed (previously took a few seconds)

FLEET AND SHIP TACTICAL SETTINGS
- removed unused Fleet Stance tactical setting
- in Tactical Settings dialog, the orange warning highlight for Fleet Engagement Range when the Military Attack policy is manually-controlled (thus disabling auto fleet engagement) is now used even when selected fleet is automated
- updated Galactopedia topic for Tactical Settings to reflect updated ship and fleet tactical terminology and functionality
- added comprehensive tooltips explaining each item in the Tactical Settings screen
- ensure Tactical Settings dialog closes when select ship or fleet of another empire
- clarified wording of explanations for Fleet Engagement Range in Galactopedia and Tactical Dialog tooltips (manual fleets auto-engaging within current system)
- added tooltip to explain that Fleet Retreat tactical setting is not used by manually-controlled fleets
- added tooltip to Fleet Engagement Range to explain when this is used by fleets
- changed labeling for some fleet tactical settings for extra clarity
- ensure Tactical Settings dialog not displayed when open Ship Design screen
- to reduce confusion role in ship tactical settings has been replaced with position within fleet
- added extra 'Apply Settings' buttons to Tactical Settings dialog when displaying tactics for ship that is part of a fleet: allow applying settings to all fleet ships with same role, design, position in fleet.

FUEL TANKERS
- automated Fuel Tankers in a fleet are no longer set to manual control when you set their fleet to Manual or when manually assign a fleet mission. This allows Fuel Tankers to remain automated and auto-delivering fuel to the fleet ships while the rest of the fleet is under manual control. Note that you can still set fleet Fuel Tankers to manual control when individually selecting them
- ensure properly exclude fuel tankers when generating action button for fleet retrofit (fleet fuel tankers operate independently and retrofit on their own schedule)
- automated Fuel Tankers now retrofit and repair as needed even when assigned to a fleet
- additional tweaks to Fuel Tanker evaluation of when to refuel various ship roles, e.g. exploration ships now not refueled until lower fuel level, thus spending less time waiting for fuel tankers
- Fuel Tankers now periodically check whether target ship still needs refueling, cancelling mission if needed
- Fuel Tankers no longer refuel other Fuel Tankers unless they are completely out of fuel (including no fuel in cargo)
- Fuel Tankers more careful to avoid locations that have damaging storm effects that they cannot handle
- Fuel Tankers now more careful to avoid attempting to refuel ships that will soon enter hyperspace, instead prefer idle ships or ships that have already reached mission destination
- Fuel Tankers now more careful to avoid traveling to hostile locations when attempting to join up with fleet. Will instead move to nearby location free of threats
- ensure Fuel Tankers can refuel ships even when in deep space far from any normal location

COLONIZATION, MIGRATION AND TOURISM
- improved selection of queued colonization targets by existing colony ships that already have population loaded. Will now also unload population if necessary so that can load more suitable population from existing colonies
- added new mission type to unload passengers for colony ships with colonists onboard. Access by selecting colony ship and right-clicking on one of your empire's colonies for pop-up mission list
- altered auto-assigned migration missions to prefer higher suitability destination colonies
- now exclude Colony Ships as available to colonize new colony while loading colonists (assign mission button in New Colonies list)
- when colonization range limits are enforced (game startup settings) now use straight-line distance to evaluate whether potential colony is in range of existing colonies (instead of path time, which caused issues when potential colonies were in nebulae)
- fixed bug where colony ships would sometimes load wrong race as colonists
- further improved race selection for new colonies, even for independent colonies, i.e. attempt to use most suitable race
- further improved automated selection of colonizing race for Colony Ships based on queued and non-queued colonization targets (i.e. attempt to select most suitable race for new colonies). This applies even when you have custom population policies at your colonies that would otherwise prioritize other races for pickup (e.g. Resettle)
- now prevent unloading colonists at colonies that cannot accept them due to either blocking population policy (e.g. Do Not Accept) or colony already being at maximum population
- disabled ships (cannot move) no longer count as threats and thus do not show up on threats list or block colonization or construction at the location
- tourism missions now properly ignore colony population policy settings (tourism to destinations with policy of Do Not Accept, etc)
- ensure tourism destinations are selected more evenly by passenger ships (resort bases + scenic colonies)

ECONOMY, COLONIES, RESOURCES AND CONSTRUCTION
- colony corruption and support costs now scale similarly to colony revenue beyond 50% maximum population. This means that net colony revenue no longer decreases as population increases, though it will increase much more slowly.
- reduced luxury resource consumption rate at colonies by 33% to improve resource logistics across a variety of galaxy map settings and resource prevalences
- reduced default stock level for fuel storage at mining stations
- ensured spaceports not at colonies have more storage space and higher stock levels for fuel and construction resources
- freighters transporting resources to locations now allow some over-delivery of amounts beyond cargo capacity for each resource. This especially improves efficiency for locations that are space-constrained and thus have stock levels the same as the cargo capacity (e.g. mining stations, research stations)
- ensure resource ordering for colonies and bases requests excess amount above stock levels to reduce frequency of reordering and thus reduce freighter demand
- fixed bug where destinations were sometimes failing to receive resources via freighter
- added warnings to New Colonies list and Selection Panel indicating when a planet has low suitability for colonization and the economic consequences
- new resources are now properly discovered and used when you acquire a ship or base with the previously unknown resource in its cargo (e.g. abandoned base, story event, etc)
- fixed bases built at independent colonies (e.g. research stations) incorrectly using cargo, stock levels and cargo capacities of parent colony (should only do so when parent colony is own empire)
- ensured Resources and Stock Levels dialog does not incorrectly indicate that some resource amounts on hand are below the stock level
- Resources and Stock Levels dialog now includes explanatory note about foreign sources in tooltip for Mined and Known Locations
- colonies now always attempt to stock super luxury resources when available (Korabbian Spice, Loros Fruit, Zentabia Fluid), even when they can meet their target development level through other, more accessible luxury resources
- ensure automated construction does not build too many ships at once (minimize big swings in cash on hand, etc)

EMPIRE BONUSES
- all maintenance savings bonuses now applied by dividing by (1 + bonus amount) instead of multiplying by bonus amount (ship maintenance, troop maintenance, planetary facility maintenance). This means that maintenance savings can never be greater than full maintenance costs (no negative maintenance)
- fixed some bonus types being applied incorrectly (TroopRecoveryRate, ShipEnergyUsage)
- ensure that empire-wide bonuses from research are properly integrated into overall empire bonuses (e.g. Troop Maintenance Savings from Improved Logistics project, etc)

CHARACTER SKILLS AND DIMINISHING RETURNS
- character skills at a location are now applied with diminishing values. Thus the best character for a skill applies 100% of their skill level, but all subsequent characters only apply a steadily diminishing proportion of their skill for that area (thus 100%, 50%, 25%, etc). This means that is is often better to spread characters across multiple locations instead of concentrating them at a single location, e.g. admirals and generals in multiple fleets, scientists in multiple research stations, etc.
- updated Galactopedia topic Characters to explain diminishing character skills for a location
- slowed growth of character skill levels

INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
- decreased success chance for intelligence missions. Diminishing value begins at 75% instead of previous 90%. Thus spies must have much higher skill levels to reach high success chance

SHIP DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS
- tweaked default design templates for colony ships and troop transports to maximize chance of sufficient reactor energy output to power hyperdrives at full speed and thus extend travel range
- further improved auto-design for troop transports to maximize fuel range by ensuring hyperdrives have full reactor energy supply
- fixed faulty weapon damage graph for tractor beams in Ship Design screen

EXPLORATION
- fixed exploration ships sometimes pausing exploration of home system when have not yet found fuel source
- fixed black hole vortex range so that exploration ships can properly complete mission

OTHER CHANGES
- suppress incorrect initial mouse-up when enter research screen from main view header (would sometimes incorrectly queue the hovered research project)
- fixed text display bug for colony events reported as Galaxy News (Patriotic Wave, Predictive History, etc)
- limit maximum number of items displayed in Summary View (bottom-middle of screen) at galaxy level (colonies, spaceports, fleets) to ensure that on lower resolution displays this does not become overwhelming in the late game
- altered Ghost Fleet Base story event to always be generated at location with fuel source
- ensure raid countdown processed for bases

ART BUNDLE CHANGES
- fixed various issues in the art bundles with incorrect texture sizes as well as uncompressed or unstreamed texture settings
- substantially reduced texture memory usage for creatures, nebulae and effects





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 31, 2022, 03:50:30 PM
Woooohoooooo - will start a new game soon - holiday next week
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on May 31, 2022, 04:45:08 PM
Well it looks like Huw can finally dust off the game again.

Will start one tomorrow I reckon.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 31, 2022, 11:00:45 PM
Looking forward to your guys' take as always.  I continue to expect the game won't truly be up to snuff until next year, but I wouldn't mind if that outlook was proven to be overly pessimistic on my part. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 01, 2022, 02:07:50 AM
It's typical, Martok, because you're slowly convincing me to give Interstellar Space another go. :D

But I will definitely try DW2 again first.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 02, 2022, 08:36:41 AM
I've only played about an hour so far, but no complaints yet. I've yet to acquire any fuel tankers though.

I did almost report a bug. I'd had an explorer set to manual, then later automated it. Then, when the design got upgraded, all my explorers except that one retrofit themselves immediately. The one I'd had on manual (but was now fully automated) didn't.

Just as I was about to report the bug though, it finally did go and retrofit itself. Hmmm.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 03, 2022, 05:57:44 AM
It's typical, Martok, because you're slowly convincing me to give Interstellar Space another go. :D

Muahahahaha

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 12, 2022, 01:01:23 PM
Second game - just got teir 2 hyperdrives so the local area just opened up

Playing as humans again and this time didn’t bork the meeting with the ghost pirates - paid them - got the booty and the ships

I’m suffering raids from one pirate faction who I’m not paying protection to and this time round through sheer chance I’ve discovered I can capture the ships - I thought that was a research thing with tractor beams etc but nope close and board so far I’ve captured 3 frigates which is huge for my tiny fleet

Everything ok so far
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 12, 2022, 01:27:18 PM
I had two explorers run out of fuel while exploring neighbouring systems. Bit annoying - why didn't they come back to refuel when they reached bingo? I guess the devs expect us to always have fuel tankers on hand, which I don't have yet in my second game.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 12, 2022, 01:39:39 PM
Did they fly into a nebula? I’m sure there’s some kind of fuel penalty for that
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 16, 2022, 06:03:39 PM
Nope, just checked. No nebulas around. They just explore until they're out of fuel.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on June 17, 2022, 07:41:54 AM
So, does that mean that they are lost? No just calling out the RAC to bring a can of fuel?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 17, 2022, 08:01:35 AM
Haven’t seen it happen yet - I don’t know whether they eventually recover a few drops and limp home or you need a tanker on a ‘refill’ mission
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on June 17, 2022, 08:37:16 AM
Something like the 'fuel rats' in Elite :-)
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 17, 2022, 09:39:59 AM
Exactly that

A guy at work very nearly got me into Eve with his tales of things like the fuel rats and and damage recovery - I could listen to the stories for hours and read them as I do but I think it’s very much a one game for life thing!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 17, 2022, 10:05:18 AM
So, does that mean that they are lost? No just calling out the RAC to bring a can of fuel?

When a ship runs out of fuel, it can still warp but only at 33% speed - which means it takes forever just to limp to the nearest system.

This is why I was furious with how the game used to work: a fuel tanker would warp to the crippled ship to deliver fuel, but since the supposedly empty ship could still warp, the tanker would invariably miss it and try to catch up again. Repeat ad nauseum until both ships arrive at the destination where fuel is probably waiting anyway. This effectively tied up two ships instead of one and it's absolutely baffling that the game launched with that behaviour.

Supposedly tankers are a lot more sensible now, and favour fleets instead of lone ships. I've only just got tankers up and running in my new game so I haven't tested it fully yet.

I'd prefer that ships with no fuel are simply unable to move. Not only does it make more sense, but it also means any tanker can easily assist it.

I'd further prefer that ships don't run out of fuel for no good reason. In this case my explorers are surveying systems until they're at 0%, and only then does it occur to them to go find some more fuel.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 17, 2022, 10:08:45 AM
Also to add to this: these are tiny details that you only notice if you're really paying attention. If you remain at a more "zoomed-out" perspective you'll never notice this stuff, and things appear to be running smoothly. But one little thing not working properly will be multiplied by the number of "things" you have, and an apparently stable empire can in fact be crippled at its core.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 17, 2022, 10:10:24 AM
I think I prefer consider the jump distance and go refuel before jumping like military fleets do

Fortunately it’s very rare I’m watching from zoomed out - I’m always following a ship, a fleet a planet but I see your point
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 17, 2022, 02:08:12 PM
I haven't seen tankers trying to fuel a ship at warp (yet). However what I have seen multiple times is a tanker warping in to refuel a ship that's just warped to a planet to refuel. So by the time the tanker is in range the ship has fuelled anyway. An improvement, then, but definitely needs more work.

I really want "don't ask again" on the popups. I keep getting a popup to build a research station somewhere or other because of a 10% bonus to hyperdrive research. I don't want to disable suggestions in general, but I do want to disable this one because I definitely don't want to build this station yet.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 17, 2022, 02:55:26 PM
Never had one of those

Can you change build research to manual?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 17, 2022, 04:51:21 PM
So I'd been wondering why there hadn't been any beta patches recently.  Turns out they've been working on that engine upgrade they'd mentioned previously...for which there is now a beta patch available:   


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=385109




I really want "don't ask again" on the popups. I keep getting a popup to build a research station somewhere or other because of a 10% bonus to hyperdrive research. I don't want to disable suggestions in general, but I do want to disable this one because I definitely don't want to build this station yet.

This, plus infinity. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on June 17, 2022, 05:07:51 PM
.........and beyond?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 17, 2022, 06:17:34 PM
Never had one of those

Can you change build research to manual?

You've misunderstood matey. The popup is suggesting I build a research station somewhere, it's not to do with what I'm actually researching. I want to get build suggestions, I just don't want that particular one any more.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 17, 2022, 06:29:00 PM
Got you - it’s something I’ve never received so I have it turned off somewhere
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 17, 2022, 09:14:10 PM
.........and beyond?

Always.  8) 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on June 17, 2022, 10:17:17 PM
Yep, a 2.4 GB download in the latest update. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 23, 2022, 03:47:43 PM
ive got exploration ships stopping at bases to refuel before jumping  :party:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 25, 2022, 06:16:31 AM
A tiny step in the right direction. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on June 25, 2022, 10:54:01 AM
ive got exploration ships stopping at bases to refuel before jumping  :party:

Well that seems like an eminently sensible idea.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 28, 2022, 04:23:44 PM
todays minor patch

Distant Worlds 2 - Update v1.0.4.9
Hello everyone,

here's the changelog of the latest update:

FLEETS, SHIPS AND FIGHTERS
• Fixed bug that was sometimes blocking some fleet missions when Military Attack automation was manually controlled
• Prevent fleet ships from escorting their Core ships while they are still exiting construction/repair hangar
• 'Join ships to fleet' button now properly filters out any non-military selected ships when adding them to the fleet
• Fixed fighters sometimes using wrong weapons attack range (too low)
• Ensure fighters retain capture mission, assisting carriers to lower shields and capture target

CHARACTERS AND INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
• Ensure character bonuses at location (colony, ship, fleet, base) only apply to characters from own empire (e.g. not foreign ambassadors)
• Altered intelligence mission difficulty thresholds so that spies more willing to attempt riskier missions. See updated tooltip for Mission Difficulty Caution in Intelligence Missions section of Empire Policy screen for new levels
• Ensure specified percentage of spies properly used for counter-intelligence (Counter Intelligence Ratio in Empire Policy)

SPACE CREATURES
• Ensure creatures do not get too far from horizontal plane (vertical offset)
• Ensure creatures do not go too close to stars, thus being difficult to attack

OTHER
• Research summary in header now shows when a project is being crash researched
• Extended research hover summary in header to also show queued research projects
• Fixed minor text display bugs in some game events
• Fixed Prime Research Station story event sending repeated messages when Suppress Messages turned on in game settings
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on June 28, 2022, 06:04:10 PM
The research screen really needs a search tool.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 28, 2022, 06:47:54 PM
Ahhh I play concealed next steps - wouldn’t know what to search for
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 28, 2022, 06:51:31 PM
On a side note - I don’t think I have thick enough skin or tolerance to be a game dev

Wondered into the steam reviews - mainly:-

You’re game is shit - it won’t let me do XXX

Edit - oh wait I’ve found the button, yayyy you’re game is great

OR

Developer has abandoned game no updates in weeks what a con

There’s is an update literally 20 minutes ago you dick

Oh yeah, never mind, downloading now

The total black to white to black again of these assholes on steam make me want to punch them in the face
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on June 28, 2022, 08:34:33 PM
On a side note - I don’t think I have thick enough skin or tolerance to be a game dev

Wondered into the steam reviews - mainly:-

You’re game is shit - it won’t let me do XXX

Edit - oh wait I’ve found the button, yayyy you’re game is great

OR

Developer has abandoned game no updates in weeks what a con

There’s is an update literally 20 minutes ago you dick

Oh yeah, never mind, downloading now

The total black to white to black again of these assholes on steam make me want to punch them in the face

Not that I disagree with you, but in someways, the DW2 dev brought this on himself.  He's still a one man shop.  I find it hard to believe that he couldn't of hired a couple of people to assist with DW2
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 29, 2022, 05:24:26 AM
Interesting, a rare post from Elliot himself: 


Help make DW2 better (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5009665#p5009665)


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 29, 2022, 05:28:48 AM
I know that app doesn’t address this issue but the sheer number of possibilities of what players have automated or not is immense for all the my game does this niggles
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 30, 2022, 11:52:29 AM
Encountering a bit of weirdness - not going to say bug as it’s something I may not understand fully

There are systems well within my ships range that construction ships won’t go to to build, with the ui saying they’re out of range but if I click on the ship and right click on the planet ‘build mining station’ is an option 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on June 30, 2022, 11:57:15 AM
................I'm not saying its aliens, but...........

Its aliens!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 30, 2022, 12:01:04 PM
If they can fly the construction ships they’re welcome
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on June 30, 2022, 12:14:14 PM
...flippin' aliens, coming 'ere, pinchin' our construction jobs..................
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 30, 2022, 04:41:42 PM
Encountering a bit of weirdness - not going to say bug as it’s something I may not understand fully

There are systems well within my ships range that construction ships won’t go to to build, with the ui saying they’re out of range but if I click on the ship and right click on the planet ‘build mining station’ is an option 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Probable dumb question:  When you right-click on the planet to build the mining station, does the construction ship actually go there?  Or does it continue to just sit around? 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on June 30, 2022, 05:13:33 PM
No it goes and builds - I have fancy furs and cocktail drinks as proof

No handbags and shoes though
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 30, 2022, 05:38:45 PM
 :2funny:

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on July 01, 2022, 06:23:09 AM
No it goes and builds - I have fancy furs and cocktail drinks as proof

No handbags and shoes though

Do you have to discover space crocodiles for those?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 04, 2022, 01:26:27 PM
Today I learned not to scuttle colony ships with 58m aliens aboard - were they sent to the nearest starbase?

Nooooo - vapourised

On the flip side I have an empty colony ship now - does anyone know how to pick up people from a planet - I have a planet with 300m aliens on and 58m humans - the humans aren’t happy but I can’t seem to give the colony ship a pick up the humans and take them back home order
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on July 04, 2022, 03:18:08 PM
You can set a per-colony migration preference (and you can also make it empire-wide based on whatever colony you're fiddling with). After setting the preference you have to wait for passenger ships to do the ferrying.

How certain are you that those colonists just disappeared? Seems like a bit of an oversight for a game like this, especially since you can't just vanish ships you don't want, having instead to send them to a shipyard to be decommissioned.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 04, 2022, 03:33:45 PM
I scrapped the ship at shipyard XXX at planet XXX

They’re not at that planet, I only have 3 other colonies and they’re not there

For some reason the planet is 29% preferable for the aliens and 9% for humans but passenger ships keep bringing humans in - I’ll look at the migration settings
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on July 04, 2022, 05:31:07 PM
Yeah this whole subsystem definitely isn't working properly. You just reminded me of a bug I encountered the other day. I queued a colonisation order specifying the slave alien race I keep as pets because the planet wasn't suitable for Humans. But when the colony ship was constructed it picked up Humans anyway.

As I've said before, little things like this all add up. You just can't trust the AI with anything but the scale of the game is such that you can't micromanage everything either. It's so goddamn frustrating.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 04, 2022, 06:10:27 PM
changed the policy to get humans off this planet

set the empty colony ship to auto - it went to the next colony and filled up with humans - but now realises it hasnt got anywhere to drop them off, ive set it to put the humans back and then will see if it can go to the alien planet and pick up the rest of the humans

since the policy switch there are a lot more passenger ships taking humans off - i reckon theyve moved about 3 million out - strangely there are still some bringing humans in but this might have been pre new immigration laws - there are 2 to choose from, dont accept humans and get humans off - ill keep it at get humans off til theyre all gone and then switch to dont accept humans

i have 2 more problems now - firstly the haakonish (?) like swamp and forest and i have a few of those they can go colonise but if i hover over the planets in the colony tab it only gives me the human suitability level so i cant see the optimum place to send them

secondly the ackdarians ive just found have declared war on me - not a clue how to conduct this so im off to read up
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 05, 2022, 12:24:13 PM
Confusion reigns

I’ve taken all the humans off the haakonish planet - check

I’ve found 3 wonderful planets the haakonish would love

I can’t get the haakonish off their own planet

I don’t know if it’s because it was an independent colony as opposed to a part of an empire

The one thing left for me to try is colonise the planet they would want with humans, set a policy of ‘get these guys off here’ on the haakonish planet and hope ships will transfer the little green fellas to their new planet and then ship the humans off again

The wandering confused colony ship when automated happily zips around picking up humans and then doesn’t go anywhere - if I set it to manual I can not get it to pick up haakons it simply has no functionality as a colony ship where they’re involved despite it ironically been built by them
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 06, 2022, 05:02:40 AM
^  This is a textbook example of why I'm not bothering with DW2 currently, and probably won't be for a long time to come still.  Shit like this was supposed to have been vastly improved/made a lot easier than in the original game, but that's not happened. 

I'm starting to worry that the game might not be where it ought to be, even in a year's time.  Hopefully that's just the natural cynic/pessimist in me, but I'm really not holding my breath at this point. 



In the meantime, give me Stellaris any day.  Say what you will about it, but it's a hell of a lot more intuitive and easier to play.  (I can't believe I'm saying that about a Paradox title, yet here we are.) 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 06, 2022, 06:27:29 AM
The manual migration process is currently working - I’ve got 5 million off their colony and into the recently acquired swamp planet they crave

I’ve started taking the humans off - hopefully the defunct colony ship might help

In other news I’ve found a 28 and a 38 suitabality planet for the humans but when I click on colonise it won’t build a ship - I don’t know if this is because there’s already an unemployed ship floating around so I’ll try and do it manually
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 06, 2022, 06:30:58 AM
As an aside when I used to play WitP the biggest fun was sorting out supplies and fuel and getting neck deep in the logistics - there is a guy on the matrix forum who has switched to manual all the planets and stations stock piling and supply distribution and advocates that this is how the game should be played and was always meant to be - taking responsible for the entire empires resource allocation
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on July 06, 2022, 07:20:46 AM
I only know of the game what I read here, but that does sound terribly tedious. But there again, some folks like doing that sort of stuff, so its all subjective, innit.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on July 06, 2022, 11:26:21 AM
That would be incredibly tedious, yes. There are dozens of resources in the game and having to manage them individually for every colony sounds like a nightmare.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 08, 2022, 04:04:16 AM
A new beta update just dropped: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5013276#p5013276




Quote
Changes in 1.0.5,3 Beta - July 7th, 2022

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when showing research screen
- fixed rare crash while ship is determining system jump path
- fixed a number of multi-threading-related crashes

PERFORMANCE AND MEMORY
- extended multi-threading to better utilize CPU cores and provide better performance
- improved texture memory management to improve performance and further minimize crashes
- enabled early exit from many multi-threaded tasks to provide more responsiveness in very large games when exiting to main menu or initiating load or save
- improved performance when calculating construction yard wait times for incoming ships, thus improving responsiveness in very large games

DIPLOMACY
- empires now properly decide whether to honor Defense Treaties, will consider whether to declare war on aggressors against their allies. Declining to honor treaty negatively impacts relations and reputation, whereas honoring the treaty (declaring war on aggressor) improves relations and reputation. When war diplomacy is not automated, player will be prompted with modal message window where they must choose whether to honor treaty or not
- value of offer to end war with 3rd party in diplomacy trade deal screen now valued much lower. Other empire also has to be interested in an end to your war with 3rd party, i.e. they are friends with 3rd party and concerned about the war
- Non Aggression treaties no longer offered when diplomatic strategy for a faction is set to Conquer
- altered acceptance levels for diplomatic trade deals with other empires: angry empires require much higher value offered, friendly empires no longer offer very favourable deals
- increased negative diplomatic incident amount from invading colonies, whether the colony is independent or owned by another faction. Negative incident amount now also scales with colony size, i.e. larger colonies generate stronger incident. However when at war with faction then incident is much lower, as is negative reputation impact
- increased negative diplomatic incident amount from colony bombardment. Note that this is not just a constant value, but rather is tied to actual amount of population loss
- fixed bug where special locations could be traded repeatedly in Diplomacy trade screen
- fixed bug where could not refuel ships at pirate bases when have Military Refuelling agreement

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- fleets no longer incorrectly refuel when assign prepare and attack mission against target outside a star system
- default designs for medium and large freighters now have more fuel tanks to give greater range than small freighters
- fixed bug where some ship/base retrofits were not completing properly, i.e. some new components were not being added
- improved willingness of construction ships without hyperdrives to build new bases at own location

COLONIZATION
- colony ships now less likely to retrofit and more likely to colonize any targets within range before refuelling (i.e. do not refuel if already have colonization target within range)
- improved willingness of automated Colony Ships to colonize queued colonization targets that are independent colonies but are unsuitable for empire races (does not matter because bulk of population is pre-existing well-suited native race)

MODDING SUPPORT
- enabled IsPlayable flag in Races.xml file to better support modding. Note that races list in Start New Game screen does not scroll horizontally, so can currently only add 3-4 more races before disappear off right side of screen, but will add scroll support in future
- added better support for custom mod-loading through command-line arguments

OTHER
- refresh 'Continue Game' button tooltip with latest savegame when exit to main menu
- properly refresh empire territory path lines after load game
- fixed shift key sometimes not working when editing text
- reduced volume for construction sound effects
- fixed empires using independent flags


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 17, 2022, 04:57:15 AM
New beta update: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5015694#p5015694




Quote
Changes in 1.0.5.6 Beta (July 14th, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when calculating construction yard wait times
- fixed crash when calculating stock levels
- fixed crash when removing list items
- fixed crash when merging temporary locations
- fixed crash when resolving character location description
- fixed crash when generating message log user interface
- fixed crash when ship evaluates nearby threats

SHIP BEHAVIOR
- ships now remain in hyperjump when assign new mission if target is at same location as previous mission, e.g. thus have all fleet ships continue their jump to threat investigation location after first ship exits jump and upgrades mission to attack threat (no need to exit jump and then restart new jump)
- added new ship mission type: Explore Location - explores all items at a location, useful for manually exploring asteroid fields. Select exploration ship and right-click on an item for popup menu with this mission

COLONIZATION AND SUITABILITY
- tweaked independent colony suitability for some races so that always have suitability of at least +20 (economically viable)

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- added extra filter in New Mining Locations list: 'All Resources - No Asteroids'
- improved selectability of fleets and other items at galaxy level
- added popup selection when click multiple items at same point
- selection popup list is ordered by type, with fleets, stars and spaceports first
- ensure player empire territory marked green (friendly) in Diplomacy map overlay
- now include Autosaves for Continue Game button, i.e. if an autosave is the most recent savegame then that game will be resumed
- better selection of default user interface size based on screen resolution (i.e. larger default size for larger screens)
- fixed bug where ships sometimes could not be selected at system level

BUG FIXES
- fixed Mining Locations list sometimes showing wrong items when filtering by a specific resource
- properly filter out unknown resources in Colonies list
- ensure Upgrade Design button properly accounts for components that have matching category but not the necessary capabilities, e.g. Star Marine Barracks that are crew quarters category but are used differently

SOUND EFFECTS
- limit number of simultaneous sound effects of same type to avoid very high effect volume, especially when first zooming into a location

OTHER
- provided better download link when prompting to install .Net 6.0
- properly clear room background when speak with independent colony for non-playable race
- capped maximum number of user-defined starting empires in Start New Game screen to 20
- remove HighDPI aware registry flag for current user (no need for this as DW2 now handles this itself)
- fixed a typo regarding the Technocracy government
- Military Academy facilities are now 1 per Empire as originally intended


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 19, 2022, 10:15:38 AM
Found the perfect planet without realising it’s in an ion storm - colony ship keeps cutting out trying to get in

Need to develop ion armour - love this crap

Unfortunately GPU fan is having a heart attack in this weather so will have to wait
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 23, 2022, 12:58:43 PM
Reading a number of DW2 guides…….

Blah blah blah these weapons are great til mid game

🤷‍♂️ Wtf is mid game? Who defines what mid game is?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bob48 on July 23, 2022, 02:05:00 PM
Its the long bit in between the start and the, erm..................end.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 24, 2022, 06:53:41 PM
I have 30m poor souls lost in an ion storm aboard a coloniser ship - this sounds like great narrative so I don’t know whether to fix the situation or leave it

I have researched the ion shield and can send ships into the area but cannot get this lost ship out - advice on the matrix forums is to go into the editor and scuttle the ship and put 30m back on the home planet but part of me likes the lost millions story - I’ll think about it

The haaakons who wouldn’t migrate - apparently there’s a limit of 500m before the population will consider emigrating

I still can’t get the new worlds screen to show which planets are suitable for haakons but that may have something to do with the 500m floor limit too - which I was getting close to until a continental sink hole appeared and dropped 100m into the planets core ☹️☹️

I also have a planet with a certain kind of plague that leaves us vulnerable to mind control - I don’t know which race excels at mind control but what a cool option
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on July 27, 2022, 05:56:11 PM
Everything that needs an ion shield now has one - I expect that whenever there’s an auto upgrade to the explorer and construction fleet it’ll be taken off again and I can’t find a ‘this must be compulsory’ option

My biggest fear now is the massive civilian fleet of haulers and miners - will the ai ignore that they don’t have an ion shield for the sake of gameplay or do I have to manually tweak every ship in the civilian fleet AND every time there’s an upgrade

We’ll find out
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on July 29, 2022, 08:30:39 AM
Beta build 1.0.6.0 is now out: 


Quote


Changes in 1.0.6.0 Beta (July 28th, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when checking ships within range at a location
- fixed crash when finding shortest docking wait queue at a location
- fixed rare crash when calculating jump path between systems

FLEET, SHIP AND FIGHTER BEHAVIOR
- fixed fleet ships sometimes getting stuck in deep space unable to jump
- fixed damaged fleet ships that cannot jump to repair location causing repeated fleet repair missions
- improved fleet target selection so that do not upgrade attack against enemy ship to attack against entire fleet unless lead ship of enemy fleet is visible, thus better assessing whether need to refuel or gather before attack
- now ensure ships always get properly refueled by fuel tanker, even when very close to planet
- fighters now better at continuing to escort carriers when supporting ongoing Raid, Capture or Bombard missions (fighters no longer stop idle in space)

COLONIZATION
- improved loading colonists for new colony targets so that load most suitable race even when is not dominant race at load colony

CHARACTERS
- better handling of imprisoned characters when reconquer colony (ensure properly removed from prisoners of previous empire)
- properly exclude imprisoned characters when determining defensive bonuses at colony (as shown in Troop Report screen)

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- avoid precaching some models and textures when have low video memory
- added some extra game settings to allow disabling some rendering effects

AI IMPROVEMENTS
- now properly handle situation when empire was planning to build expensive planetary facility at a colony, but lost colony while saving up construction funds

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- added further tooltips to Design List screen explaining Retrofit and Status columns
- ensure that accepting a request to help another empire battle the Hive threat also ends any war between you
- fixed sorting in Defensive Bases list for Name and Distance From Spaceport
- added more detailed inline text formatting for markup language
- extended text formatting to messages

OTHER
- improved error reporting in some situations
- further reduced simultaneous sound effects that can sometimes create loud bursts of sound
- implemented better approach for resetting static base data (loaded from XML files) when start a new game in same session (no longer reload from files), thus better supporting modding





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on July 29, 2022, 12:10:42 PM
Hmm, that colonisation change might solve a problem or two.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 10, 2022, 08:42:22 PM
Beta updated to version 1.0.6.2 AND 1.0.6.3 (yes, I'm running behind again): 



Quote
Changes in 1.0.6.2 Beta (August 5th, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when executing some game events
- fixed crash when signalling docking completion for a ship
- fixed rare crash when use planet destroyer
- fixed crash when ship evaluates nearby threats
- fixed issue where some older savegames could not be loaded
- improved locking to reduce contention and fix crashes

RENDERING AND GAME SETTINGS
- added Vulkan/DXVK rendering option in game settings
- integrated new command line option to use DirectX11, which resets any registry settings to use DXVK. To use add /use-dx11 as a command-line argument to DistantWorlds2.exe
- persisted some previously unsaved game settings (Control Center List item size, rendering option toggles)

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- added text formatting to various messages
- fixed some minor display issues with text layout

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- minor performance improvements in some areas

OTHER
- ensure creatures move away from stars if too close
- improved error reporting
- improved profiling to enable frame capture using RenderDoc
- added extra checks with multi-file loading for mods, giving better feedback on data error


Quote
Changes in 1.0.6.3 (August 10th, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when determining threat level for enemy ship
- fixed crash when checking whether research project prerequisites have been researched
- fixed rare crash when escorting target
- fixed rare crash when calculating ship strength including fighters
- fixed rare crash when drawing diplomatic relation details
- fixed crash when click on non-item area of Resource Flow selection list

FLEET AND SHIP BEHAVIOR
- fixed ships sometimes incorrectly reassigning mission when get too close to planets
- reduced collision avoidance contention when ships are docking at base, thus improving throughput
- further extended logic for ships to avoid exiting hyperjump when mission changes: will now remain in hyperjump when change - mission to move to coordinates (at same location), even though do not have specific target
- more careful auto-loading and unloading of troops for automated troop transports that are not part of a fleet. Avoid getting in endless loop of loading/unloading troops

TROOPS
- fixed some non-playable race troop sizes (were zero, thus very fast recruitment, etc)
- ensure troop recruitment costs always paid, even when manually recruited
- troops named with proper numeric prefix that relates to number of troop units in empire
- Infantry defense strengths increased

MANUAL PLAY IMPROVEMENTS
- added action buttons for multi-selected ships: scrap and retire selected ships
- added new right-click mission for multi-selected ships: capture (when ships have capability)

OTHER
- fixed story events sometimes being generated in the wrong location (e.g. ancient debris fields at homeworld)
- fixed minor text formatting issues
- further improved planet quality for independent colonies (always suitable for native population)
- added extra tooltip descriptions for character traits Corrupt (Scientist) and Double Agent


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 12, 2022, 01:56:13 PM
Beta updated to v1.0.6.4.  Sounds like this will probably be the version that goes live next week as the next major public update. 


Quote
Changes in 1.0.6.4 (August 12th, 2022):

CRASH AND BUG FIXES
- fixed rare crash when resolving ship mission commands
- fixed rare crash when calculating ship collision avoidance factors
- fixed bug where location effects could sometimes linger for ships, disrupting subsequent movement

COLONIZATION
- ensure some story planets have proper quality levels to eventually become colonized by specified race
- fixed automated colonization sometimes colonizing targets slightly below suitability threshold in empire policy

OTHER
- ensure correct infantry image always used in research screen for troop research projects
- fixed scuttle button sometimes not working for single ships or bases


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 24, 2022, 04:06:25 AM
Well it only took them two months ::) , but the next major public update has finally dropped: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-update-v1064


Quote

This major official update includes an engine upgrade, a new Vulkan rendering mode and many, many bug fixes, performance, UI, AI and gameplay improvements.  Please read through the changes below to see how to get the best results from DW2 on your system.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE (New Engine and .NET 6.0):

The Core game engine has been upgraded to use the latest version of Stride. (4.1.0.1)

Due to this, .NET 6.0 is now required to run the game (it previously required .NET 4.0). Steam should start to install it automatically. If your Steam client does not start the install, please Exit Steam and try again. This should hopefully refresh the client and force it to do so.

- If the prompt with .NET 6.0.5 doesn't start/appear. Please download dotnet from the link below. Then restart your PC before launching DW2.

DotNet Download

 

IMPORTANT NOTE (Vulkan/DXVK Support):

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 will 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)

 

You can download the latest update here

 

Changes in 1.0.6.4:

ENGINE UPGRADE

- Upgraded engine to Stride 4.1.0.1, which requires .NET 6.0.  Please see the important notes above.

 

RENDERING AND GAME SETTINGS

- added Vulkan/DXVK rendering option in game settings

- integrated new command line option to use DirectX11, which resets any registry settings to use DXVK. To use add /use-dx11 as a command-line argument to DistantWorlds2.exe

- persisted some previously unsaved game settings (Control Center List item size, rendering option toggles)

- Auto-detect and warn when PC is missing a vendor-specific display driver (i.e. when only Available adapter is 'Microsoft Basic Render Driver')

 

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

- minor performance improvements in some areas

- avoid precaching some models and textures when have low video memory

- added some extra game settings to allow disabling some rendering effects

- extended multi-threading to better utilize CPU cores and provide better performance

- improved texture memory management to improve performance and further minimize crashes

- enabled early exit from many multi-threaded tasks to provide more responsiveness in very large games when exiting to main menu or initiating load or save

- improved performance when calculating construction yard wait times for incoming ships, thus improving responsiveness in very large games

-  Improved rendering performance by implementing shader instancing when drawing galaxy map highlights (list items) and empire territory circles/lines.  These improvements are especially evident in large games when zoomed out to the galaxy level

- improved performance when opening very large lists in Control Center (e.g. civilian ships)

 

CRASH AND BUG FIXES

- fixed various crashes relating to Stride rendering

- fixed rare crash when resolving ship mission commands

- fixed rare crash when calculating ship collision avoidance factors

- fixed bug where location effects could sometimes linger for ships, disrupting subsequent movement

- fixed crash when determining threat level for enemy ship

- fixed crash when checking whether research project prerequisites have been researched

- fixed rare crash when escorting target

- fixed rare crash when calculating ship strength including fighters

- fixed rare crash when drawing diplomatic relation details

- fixed crash when click on non-item area of Resource Flow selection list

- fixed rare crash when executing some game events

- fixed crash when signalling docking completion for a ship

- fixed rare crash when use planet destroyer

- fixed crash when ship evaluates nearby threats

- fixed issue where some older savegames could not be loaded

- improved locking to reduce contention and fix crashes

- fixed crash when checking ships within range at a location

- fixed crash when finding shortest docking wait queue at a location

- fixed rare crash when calculating jump path between systems

- fixed crash when reviewing system visibility after ship exits hyperjump

- fixed crash when drawing location badges

- fixed rare crash when creating new colony

- fixed crash when ship reviews its fleet escort

- fixed crash when recording ship revert mission

- fixed crash when checking for abandoned ships at location

- fixed crash when fleet considers whether to retreat

- fixed crash when updating system summary data

- fixed rare crash when loading ship designs

- fixed crash when calculating construction yard wait times

- fixed crash when calculating stock levels

- fixed crash when removing list items

- fixed crash when merging temporary locations

- fixed crash when resolving character location description

- fixed crash when generating message log user interface

- fixed crash when ship evaluates nearby threats

- fixed rare crash when showing research screen

- fixed rare crash while ship is determining system jump path

- fixed a number of multi-threading-related crashes

- fixed rare crash when processing ship movement and energy consumption

- fixed crash when ship identifies nearby threats

- improved context-locking for rendering to further reduce DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED errors

- enabled capture of DirectX Debug information when switched on

- improved error reporting with more detail

- fixed rare crash when a ship refuels

 

UI IMPROVEMENTS

- added text formatting to various messages

- fixed some minor display issues with text layout

- added further tooltips to Design List screen explaining Retrofit and Status columns

- ensure that accepting a request to help another empire battle the Hive threat also ends any war between you

- fixed sorting in Defensive Bases list for Name and Distance From Spaceport

- added more detailed inline text formatting for markup language

- extended text formatting to messages

- updated Design List screen to more clearly indicate toggling for some items (underlines for Role Design, Auto Retrofit, Is Active columns)

- added extra filter in New Mining Locations list: 'All Resources - No Asteroids'

- improved selectability of fleets and other items at galaxy level

- added popup selection when click multiple items at same point

- selection popup list is ordered by type, with fleets, stars and spaceports first

- ensure player empire territory marked green (friendly) in Diplomacy map overlay

- now include Autosaves for Continue Game button, i.e. if an autosave is the most recent savegame then that game will be resumed

- better selection of default user interface size based on screen resolution (i.e. larger default size for larger screens)

- fixed bug where ships sometimes could not be selected at system level

- fixed Mining Locations list sometimes showing wrong items when filtering by a specific resource

- properly filter out unknown resources in Colonies list

-  Adjusted some galaxy map overlays so that properly fade out as zoom in (long range scanners, diplomacy, exploration)

- Adjusted general opacity for some map overlays (long range scanners, diplomacy, exploration)

- added Continue Game button to main menu (load most recent savegame)

 

FLEET, SHIP AND STARFIGHTER BEHAVIOR

- fixed ships sometimes incorrectly reassigning mission when get too close to planets

- reduced collision avoidance contention when ships are docking at base, thus improving throughput

- further extended logic for ships to avoid exiting hyperjump when mission changes: will now remain in hyperjump when change - mission to move to coordinates (at same location), even though do not have specific target

- fixed fleet ships sometimes getting stuck in deep space unable to jump

- fixed damaged fleet ships that cannot jump to repair location causing repeated fleet repair missions

- improved fleet target selection so that do not upgrade attack against enemy ship to attack against entire fleet unless lead ship of enemy fleet is visible, thus better assessing whether need to refuel or gather before attack

- now ensure ships always get properly refueled by fuel tanker, even when very close to planet

- fighters now better at continuing to escort carriers when supporting ongoing Raid, Capture or Bombard missions (fighters no longer stop idle in space)

- fixed bug where fleets were sometimes calculating fuel range incorrectly and thus taking on missions that were too distant

- fighters now never allow collision avoidance to prevent them from boarding their carrier, thus avoiding holding up the carrier's jump, etc

- ships now remain in hyperjump when assign new mission if target is at same location as previous mission, e.g. thus have all fleet ships continue their jump to threat investigation location after first ship exits jump and upgrades mission to attack threat (no need to exit jump and then restart new jump)

- added new ship mission type: Explore Location - explores all items at a location, useful for manually exploring asteroid fields. Select exploration ship and right-click on an item for popup menu with this mission

- fleets no longer incorrectly refuel when assign prepare and attack mission against target outside a star system

- default designs for medium and large freighters now have more fuel tanks to give greater range than small freighters

- fixed bug where some ship/base retrofits were not completing properly, i.e. some new components were not being added

- improved willingness of construction ships without hyperdrives to build new bases at own location

- carriers no longer launch fighters when exit jumps at transit locations on way to final attack target, thus speeding up transit jumps (only launch fighters when real threats or arrive at final attack target location)

- creating new fleet from multiple selected ships now also properly updates action buttons under Selection Panel to match new fleet

 

TROOPS AND TROOP TRANSPORTS

- fixed some non-playable race troop sizes (were zero, thus very fast recruitment, etc)

- ensure troop recruitment costs always paid, even when manually recruited

- troops named with proper numeric prefix that relates to number of troop units in empire

- Infantry defense strengths increased

- fixed automated non-fleet troop transports sometimes getting into endless loop of load/unload troops at a colony

- troops at colonies now more likely to be ungarrisoned when not needed to meet defensive requirements or rebellion supression (e.g. shortly after conquest), thus freeing them up for reloading on troop transports

- more careful auto-loading and unloading of troops for automated troop transports that are not part of a fleet. Avoid getting in endless loop of loading/unloading troops

 

DIPLOMACY

- empires now properly decide whether to honor Defense Treaties, will consider whether to declare war on aggressors against their allies. Declining to honor treaty negatively impacts relations and reputation, whereas honoring the treaty (declaring war on aggressor) improves relations and reputation. When war diplomacy is not automated, player will be prompted with modal message window where they must choose whether to honor treaty or not

- value of offer to end war with 3rd party in diplomacy trade deal screen now valued much lower. Other empire also has to be interested in an end to your war with 3rd party, i.e. they are friends with 3rd party and concerned about the war

- Non Aggression treaties no longer offered when diplomatic strategy for a faction is set to Conquer

- altered acceptance levels for diplomatic trade deals with other empires: angry empires require much higher value offered, friendly empires no longer offer very favourable deals

- increased negative diplomatic incident amount from invading colonies, whether the colony is independent or owned by another faction. Negative incident amount now also scales with colony size, i.e. larger colonies generate stronger incident. However when at war with faction then incident is much lower, as is negative reputation impact

- increased negative diplomatic incident amount from colony bombardment. Note that this is not just a constant value, but rather is tied to actual amount of population loss

- fixed bug where special locations could be traded repeatedly in Diplomacy trade screen

- fixed bug where could not refuel ships at pirate bases when have Military Refuelling agreement

- ending a War or signing a Non Aggression treaty now clears any dangerous locations for other empire, thus preventing automated fleets from unnecessarily investigating locations that are no longer a threat

 

SHIP DESIGN

- ensure Upgrade Design button properly accounts for components that have matching category but not the necessary capabilities, e.g. Star Marine Barracks that are crew quarters category but are used differently

 

COLONIZATION AND SUITABILITY

- ensure some story planets have proper quality levels to eventually become colonized by specified race

- fixed automated colonization sometimes colonizing targets slightly below suitability threshold in empire policy

- improved loading colonists for new colony targets so that load most suitable race even when is not dominant race at load colony

- tweaked independent colony suitability for some races so that always have suitability of at least +20 (economically viable)

- colony ships now less likely to retrofit and more likely to colonize any targets within range before refuelling (i.e. do not refuel if already have colonization target within range)

- improved willingness of automated Colony Ships to colonize queued colonization targets that are independent colonies but are unsuitable for empire races (does not matter because bulk of population is pre-existing well-suited native race)

- fixed bug where too many colony ships were sometimes being built

- fixed bug where colony ships could sometimes load the wrong race of colonists for queued colonization targets

- when Colonization Automation is manual, automated colony ships no longer load colonists except for queued colonization targets

 

CHARACTERS

- better handling of imprisoned characters when reconquer colony (ensure properly removed from prisoners of previous empire)

- properly exclude imprisoned characters when determining defensive bonuses at colony (as shown in Troop Report screen)

- added extra tooltip descriptions for character traits Corrupt (Scientist) and Double Agent

 

MANUAL PLAY IMPROVEMENTS

- added action buttons for multi-selected ships: scrap and retire selected ships

- added new right-click mission for multi-selected ships: capture (when ships have capability)

 

AI IMPROVEMENTS

- now properly handle situation when empire was planning to build expensive planetary facility at a colony, but lost colony while saving up construction funds

 

GENERAL BUG FIXES

- now properly exclude ShipHulls_Art.xml file when not in art mode

- fixed occasional error messages relating to regional settings on non-English PCs

- fixed incorrect URL for .Net 6.0 installation

 

SOUND EFFECTS

- limit number of simultaneous sound effects of same type to avoid very high effect volume, especially when first zooming into a location

- further reduced simultaneous sound effects that can sometimes create loud bursts of sound

- added Assault Pod sound effect

- added shield strike and construction sound effects

- fixed weapon firing sound effects not playing unless weapon also had accompanying particle effect

 

MODDING IMPROVEMENTS

- added new Game Event features for story team

- now allow loading multiple XML data files per type to better support modding

- enabled IsPlayable flag in Races.xml file to better support modding. Note that races list in Start New Game screen does not scroll horizontally, so can currently only add 3-4 more races before disappear off right side of screen, but will add scroll support in future

- added better support for custom mod-loading through command-line arguments

- added extra checks with multi-file loading for mods, giving better feedback on data errors

- implemented better approach for resetting static base data (loaded from XML files) when start a new game in same session (no longer reload from files), thus better supporting modding

 

OTHER

- remove HighDPI aware registry flag for current user (no need for this as DW2 now handles this itself)

- ensure correct infantry image always used in research screen for troop research projects

- fixed scuttle button sometimes not working for single ships or bases

- fixed story events sometimes being generated in the wrong location (e.g. ancient debris fields at homeworld)

- fixed minor text formatting issues

- ensure creatures move away from stars if too close

- improved error reporting

- improved profiling to enable frame capture using RenderDoc

- improved error reporting in some situations

- properly clear room background when speak with independent colony for non-playable race

- capped maximum number of user-defined starting empires in Start New Game screen to 20

- fixed a typo regarding the Technocracy government

- Military Academy facilities are now 1 per Empire as originally intended

- refresh 'Continue Game' button tooltip with latest savegame when exit to main menu

- properly refresh empire territory path lines after load game

- fixed shift key sometimes not working when editing text

- reduced volume for construction sound effects

- fixed empires using independent flags

- fixed reputation increase from destroying pirate ships and bases

- fixed minor typo in game start text when have single additional colony

- corrected Kiadian typo in diplomatic research projects

- ensured proper game icon is shown in taskbar

- Added extra error reporting for some rendering-related crashes



Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 24, 2022, 04:10:00 AM
Now it remains to be seen how long before Slitherine finally gives us an updated roadmap on future development.  People want to know what DLC/expansions are coming, and of course the main game still needs a crap-ton of further patching before it's at the same level as (much less better than) DWU. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 24, 2022, 05:12:21 AM
Whilst I’m sure they have many dlc waiting in the wings I would have thought there’d be total horror amongst players to charge 15.99 or so for some races and missions when the game isn’t nearly near working as expected
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on August 24, 2022, 08:12:30 AM
Is it playable yet? Should I start in now or wait some more?
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 24, 2022, 09:08:03 AM
I’ve never experienced any of the crashes it’s been more functionality and ui but it’s certainly playable
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 26, 2022, 04:31:59 AM
Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I reinstalled the game...and I ended up annoyed all over again by a lot of the same nonsense as before.  Examples: 


Still can't pan the camera in any direction I want; it remains restricted to within a few degrees of the isometric view.  (So what was the point of going 3D again?) 

Saving/loading/deleting saved game slots are still a PITA due to being almost entirely mouse-based:  There are no keyboard commands for managing them, despite them being a common feature in PC gaming for the past 10-20 years. 

The game still likes to automatically un-pause.  Also, it apparently decides that my clicking anywhere on an event window or pop-up message registers as me hitting the "Play" button. 

Pre-warp is still too slow. 



But hey, planets & ships look nicer now.  ::) 




Whilst I’m sure they have many dlc waiting in the wings I would have thought there’d be total horror amongst players to charge 15.99 or so for some races and missions when the game isn’t nearly near working as expected

Well that's certainly my own thinking, but I feel like I'm in the minority in that regard.  (I hope I"m *not*, but I'm naturally cynical/skeptical about such things.) 




Is it playable yet? Should I start in now or wait some more?


It's been playable for a while now.  I suspect you'd enjoy the game well enough.  (Unless you played a lot of Distant Worlds: Universe, and/or are just a miserable bastard like myself. :crazy2: ) 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on August 26, 2022, 09:19:05 AM
are just a miserable bastard like myself

miserablebastards.com was our second choice for the name of the site
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 26, 2022, 09:29:18 AM
I’ll have a look this weekend - I maybe enjoying it more than martok without carrying any distant universe baggage
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 26, 2022, 05:21:57 PM
are just a miserable bastard like myself

miserablebastards.com was our second choice for the name of the site

I'm honestly surprised the domain name wasn't already taken.  ;D 




I’ll have a look this weekend - I maybe enjoying it more than martok without carrying any distant universe baggage

Honestly, I think that's probably the key factor right there. 


If you've put several hundred hours into the first Distant Worlds game -- like I have -- it's pretty much impossible to not compare it with Distant Worlds 2.  And when Erik & Elliot said their goal with DW2 was to basically just make a better version of the first game, I keep wondering where the "better" is at.  Because so far, I'm genuinely not seeing it. 

If, on the other hand, you've not played DW:U (or have played it only a little), then you're going to enjoy DW2 just fine. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on August 27, 2022, 10:30:49 AM
I hear what you say and I do agree the UI takes getting used to, especially for a player of DWU, but you are doing the game (and yourself) short IMO. Cause I do think you would enjoy the game. You're just not ready and willing to take a good hard look yet. (No offense meant)

Getting to grips with how the UI works and its philosphy takes a few games, but when it clicks the UI actually isnt that bad at all. It's just very different than DWU.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 27, 2022, 03:10:56 PM
Just tried to fire a game.  I have Independent Colonies set to Very Rare, and twice in a row on galaxy creation, I have an IC in my home system!   :censored:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 27, 2022, 03:35:00 PM
You can go into editor and remove it
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 27, 2022, 03:47:06 PM
after creating colony ships with ion shields i can now enter the gas clouds and colonise the perfect planet

thankfully the AI has enough sense to have ion shields on the freighters that are bringing in supplies for the fledgling planet
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on August 27, 2022, 03:48:48 PM
Public beta for 1.0.6.6 is now available: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5029369#p5029369

Quote
Changes in 1.0.6.6 (August 26th, 2022):

PERFORMANCE
- significant performance improvements, especially for large late-game galaxies
- galaxy-level star drawing and some other rendering now uses instancing, improving rendering performance
- further improved rendering performance in Control Center lists, especially in large late-games

FLEETS, FLEET TACTICS AND FIGHTERS
- fighters onboard carriers or bases no longer affected by location effects (storms, etc)
- ensure fleets that are manually assigned to attack enemy fleets at same location always carry out mission, even when not at war
- reduced default ratio of military ships not in fleets (empire policy)
- slightly reduced number of raid fleets for empire
- increased number of ships in default Attack fleet template
- changed default engagement range for Invasion Fleets from 50% Fuel Range to Nearby

COLONIZATION
- fixed bug where colony ships could sometimes continually load and unload colonists but never colonize a target, especially when have many queued colonization targets and many colony ships

SHIP BEHAVIOR
- mining ships now more careful to select mining targets within fuel range, including whether inside nebulae clouds

GAME EVENTS
- extended Game Events so that can have multiple filters for TriggerRaceIds and NonTriggerRaceIds
- moved AllConditionsMustBeMet flag on Game Event and Actions (no longer part of Conditions list)
- fixed minor text issue with some Hive threat messages
- fixed minor text layout issues for some ruin discovery messages

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- ensure empires have different colors and flags even when multiple empires of same race
- fixed non-clipped rendering artifacts in Start New Game screen
- made galaxy nebula clouds more visible

SHIP DESIGN
- ensured default design templates for defensive bases include Ion Defense components

OTHER
- ensure SavedGames folder exists before using Continue Game button
- enabled Sentry error reporting
- included all files in win-x64 folder that may fix freetype.dll error issues some have launching 1.0.6.4




I hear what you say and I do agree the UI takes getting used to, especially for a player of DWU, but you are doing the game (and yourself) short IMO. Cause I do think you would enjoy the game. You're just not ready and willing to take a good hard look yet. (No offense meant)

Getting to grips with how the UI works and its philosphy takes a few games, but when it clicks the UI actually isnt that bad at all. It's just very different than DWU.

Some offense taken.  If you've read my previous posts, you'd know it's not the UI I have a problem with -- that's the one area I acknowledge they did improve upon (at least somewhat). 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 27, 2022, 06:30:45 PM
You can go into editor and remove it

Any time I've tried that, it always leaves a small population behind.

I did try one more galaxy, and ended up with a Human IC in my system.  Yes, I'm Human, so it was easy colony to pickup. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Barthheart on August 28, 2022, 07:16:29 AM
You can go into editor and remove it

But you should not have to.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 28, 2022, 08:34:35 AM
indeed

as with a lot of things - particularly DW2 - if you want to enjoy the game there are few things you have to do to help it along until the devs get there - im certainly not refusing to play it because i have to click a few extra buttons
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Yskonyn on August 28, 2022, 10:13:04 AM
Oh sorry, Martok. Not my intention at all. I seemed to recall you did have issues with the UX.
Please accept my apologies.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 28, 2022, 11:51:31 PM
I've been enjoying my most recent game. Had a neighboring empire DOW in my so I took one of there planets. Now I have to decide what to do with, or more procisly, it's population. Need to figure out to manage pops now.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 30, 2022, 12:58:57 PM
I can see where you can set toggle Population Policy to Auto or Manual on a planet.  But where do you go to actually manage it.  I'm not finding it anywhere. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 30, 2022, 01:58:03 PM
There is a bar on planet info that tells you the population and says something like all human, or human and others - next to that is a white box - if you click on that it brings up a small panel allowing you to switch off and on migration policies
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on August 30, 2022, 05:44:53 PM
Thanks UCG.  Not sure if there is where you meant, but I did find it.  Of course, it's somewhere that is completely obvious  >:D

This first pic is where you set the policy.  The second one is where you determine if a planets policy is automated or manual.  No clue why they're in two totally different screens. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 30, 2022, 06:00:22 PM
That’s the one
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on September 01, 2022, 06:20:15 PM
So, when I started my current game, I saved it at the very beginning, which is a pre warp game.  After playing for awhile, I decided to reload and apply what I had learned.  I've noticed though that the pirates are not offering my deals for knowledge of systems or locations, and my spies are not active against anyone, they are just staying in counter intelligence.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on September 01, 2022, 06:28:30 PM
I know they’ve changed spies

I always manual them

Don’t know about the pirates buddy
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on September 03, 2022, 04:18:31 AM
Public beta for v1.0.6.8 has dropped: 


Quote

CRASH FIXES
- fixed game not starting for some players who had other software that improperly mapped the wrong versions of shared files (freetype.dll)
- fixed crash when determining random docking position for ship
- fixed crash when drawing empire economy
- fixed crash when showing some tour screens

RESEARCH
- research project bonus requirement amounts now scale with galaxy size - larger galaxies have higher research bonus threshold requirements due to being easier to find the necessary research bonus locations
- fixed research projects sometimes incorrectly showing up on tech tree when no parent paths (when using randomized research)
- fixed higher level research projects sometimes improperly being researchable even when have no path to them from base of tech tree
- fixed tech trading sometimes excluding research projects that you do not have access to (e.g. projects that your tech tree has no path to, even though other faction has researched the project). Note that tech trading does properly exclude projects based on your tech level in a research area, but this fix now deliberately includes projects that you may not have a path to (when appropriate for your tech level). Note that this fix also applies to some other situations where you can acquire tech, e.g. when conquering an enemy colony, when using spies to steal tech.
- fixed some research projects not generating with all required prerequisite paths
- slightly reduced research priority for diplomacy techs
- slightly reduced research priority for some planetary facilities, especially research facilities
- ensure pirate factions exclude some research projects at game start that they value lower (colonization, facilities, diplomacy), thus not being available to trade or steal from them

MILITARY BALANCE
- slightly adjusted construction balance for military ship types: generally fewer escorts and more larger ships
- increased military ship building levels

FLEETS
- further tweaked default fleet templates: larger Attack and Invade fleets
- automated generation of invasion fleets now also checks whether have enough existing troops or spare troop maintenance to supply troops from army template for new fleet

COLONY INVASIONS
- troop transports in invasion fleets that are invading an enemy colony now attempt to better coordinate assault pod launch (troop drop) so that close together instead of piecemeal landing. Also indicate when waiting for extra invasion forces in mission description in Selection Panel
- fixed bug where a ships intercept weapons were sometimes incorrectly being used to bombard an enemy colony even when only assigned attack mission against colony (not bombard)

PLANETARY MANAGEMENT
- slightly adjusted planetary facility building levels, colony population and development should be larger before some facilities are built
- reduced population level for building a small spaceport at a colony in default policy settings
- increased target tax rate for medium-sized colonies to +20 (from +10) in default policy settings to encourage faster growth

EXPLORATION
- fixed new bug where exploration ships were sometimes stopping exploration beyond home system
- slightly reduced tech level of ships in most debris fields
- ensure abandoned ships and bases do not use excessive race-specific tech

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- fixed mined and known locations amounts sometimes being out-of-date in Resources list
- fixed missing callout lines and tooltips in summary panel (bottom-middle of screen)
- fixed height of text panel in Tour screen sometimes being too short
- fixed some scrollable text panels missing their vertical scroll bar when text is higher than panel

OTHER
- ensure pre-expanded empire colonies (at game start) have good suitability levels
- added setting to Game Settings screen for opt-in/out of auto-sending anonymized error reporting
- auto-delete game settings to ensure new default policy settings are applied in new games



Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on September 06, 2022, 08:55:36 PM
1.  Space combat seems to be a little better than in DWU, but still not really seeing fleets fight beyond a mob.  Still seeing escorts charge in a few times by themselves, and not as a group
Stellaris still has a massive edge in this area

2.  You can see the racial make up of a planets population, but I yet to find where you can see this at the empire level.
There is also not policy setting for not allow specified races from colonizing.  In the first game, I have incorporated an independent colony of Ackdarian.  That was good as they could colonies ocean worlds for me.
Later, I met up with an empire of Ackdarians.  Next thing I knew, I had colonizes of them revolting with no warning that they were not happy

3.  In the other game, I invaded two IC's with Gizurean.  They really don't get along with humans.  But when I went to colonize some desert or volcanic worlds, the colony ships was using them.  Why would I want a race that doesn't like humans to colonize a large number of planets within my empire.  You cannot designate which race to use to colonize a planet

4. Space monsters are everywhere, even on the default setting

5.And pirates are way to easy to bribe for protection.   Never seen one charge more than 125 credits

6.  Even with over half of my colonies in negative revenues, I'm still gaining large amounts of cash, simply because my civilian economy is so strong
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on September 09, 2022, 04:26:44 AM
Beta for v1.0.6.9 is now available (small update): 


Quote

Changes in 1.0.6.9 (September 8th, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed a new crash when generating new game with research settings of 'All Projects Visible' and 'Fixed Research Paths'
- fixed rare crash when fleet checks whether should invade colony
- fixed rare crash when displaying trade offer with independent colony locations

RESEARCH
- fixed a new missing project paths issue on tech tree when generated using settings 'Only Next Projects Visible' (level 2+ was missing)
- altered how research project prerequisites work: now often only require a subset of all the prerequisites for a project instead of all prerequisites as previously. This fixes the issue where race-specific techs added to the required prerequisite paths instead of just being a part of them.
- reduced scaling of research project bonus requirement amounts based on galaxy size (now scales less than in the previous beta)





Erik also had this (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5033052#p5033052) to say regarding research and the tech tree: 

Quote
There will be additional data changes to the research tree in the future as we have also heard the feedback that customers would prefer fewer missing techs or truncated trees when set to Random research. We plan to add more fallback paths so that Random research mainly involves different research paths with only a few missing techs that have to be gained through other means (such as espionage, trade, exploration or salvage).


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 10, 2022, 09:07:05 PM
Distant Worlds 2 is coming to the Epic Games Store: 


https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/distant-worlds-2




I have to admit, I would not have predicted this.  But if there *was* any one game Slitherine would use as a test-bed for selling on Epic, DW2 probably is one of the better choices for it. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 16, 2022, 04:02:01 PM
@Martok, if nothing else, watch starting at the 20 min 35 sec mark


[/youtube]
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on October 16, 2022, 04:33:45 PM
Beta 1.0.8.0 is now available.  I'm guessing this version will go live as the next official update sometime later this week. 


Quote


1.0.8.0 Public Beta Update Available

Post by Erik Rutins » Fri Aug 26, 2022 3:00 pm
Hi everyone,

Please try this new beta and let us know if it helps your game.

To facilitate frequent beta iterations as needed, this beta is only available for now on Steam ( 1079 is not on 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 "beta - v.1.0.8.0" from the drop-down list and allowing Steam to update your game. If it updates correctly, you should see 1.0.8.0 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 "Beta - v1.0.8.0" from the Beta channels drop-down list and allowing GOG to update.

As a reminder, DW2 version 1.0.5.0 and later requires .Net 6.0. It should automatically be installed by both GOG Galaxy and Steam clients. However, If it fails or the game doesn't run. You can download and install IT from here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/down ... -installer

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you still experience crashes with 1.0.6.2 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. This will 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 below to switch back to DirectX 11. Integrated new command line option to use DirectX11, which resets any registry settings to use DXVK. To use add /use-dx11 as a command-line argument to DistantWorlds2.exe

Changes in 1.0.8.0 (October 14th, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash that sometimes occurred when declaring war

DIPLOMACY AND REPUTATION
- rebalanced all reputation impacts from various events
- capped maximum and minimum reputation levels
- reputation impact from events is halved when above or below high or low thresholds, meaning that extreme reputation levels, once achieved, are slower to shift
- less concern over others' reputations when you and other faction both have positive or negative reputation levels, i.e. more concerned when other faction has opposite reputation to you as well as a significant reputation gap
- updated Empire Reputation Galactopedia article to include explanation of Slavery and Extermination colony population policies
- ensure all techs valued properly in trade deal screen (none should be zero unless truly worthless to other faction)

START NEW GAME SCREEN
- ensure player starting relation level for other empires (Start New Game screen) excludes pirate protection and selects correct trade treaty (RTA, LTA, FTA)
- in Start New Game screen now use tooltips to indicate when large galaxies may cause performance issues on less capable systems

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- made it clearer in user interface when undertaking an action that will very negatively affect your reputation: Bombardment, Slavery and Extermination colony policies, declaring war in wrong situation (insufficient justification, too soon since last war, existing Non Aggression treaty, existing Defense treaty), invading independent colonies, invading colonies when not at war, destroying colonies
- Control Center now pauses list updates while hovering over list items (list items retain order) to avoid having to deal with list changes while trying to take a list action
- now immediately updates right-click mission for hovered item when select an item via hotkey (no need to move mouse), e.g. allow immediate right-click attack of hovered enemy target when select fleet via hotkey

EXPLORATION
- ensure range for discovering lost colony exceeds exploration range so that exploration ships always discover

OTHER
- avoid using reserved spending to build planetary facilities when automation is Suggest. Instead wait until have funds then suggest to player





Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 19, 2022, 01:35:14 PM
after creating colony ships with ion shields i can now enter the gas clouds and colonise the perfect planet

thankfully the AI has enough sense to have ion shields on the freighters that are bringing in supplies for the fledgling planet

How do you get Ion shields.  I don't see any of the shield techs that have them
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on October 19, 2022, 01:42:31 PM
NM.  Found it in the Ion Weapon tree.
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on October 19, 2022, 01:58:18 PM
Beat me to it!!
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on November 02, 2022, 12:44:39 PM
1.0.8.3 has dropped and it's large.

Quote
Detailed Changes in 1.0.8.3 (November 1st, 2022):

CRASH FIXES
- fixed game not starting for some players who had other software that improperly mapped the wrong versions of shared files (freetype.dll)
- fixed rare crash when determining jump path time to destination star system
- fixed rare crash when determining docking bay parking spot
- fixed rare crash when calculating docking position offset
- fixed rare crash when inserting ship into docking wait queue
- fixed crash that sometimes occurred when declaring war
- fixed crash when drawing ship weapon summary
- fixed crash when ship assigns exploration mission
- fixed crash when rendering background room for character
- fixed rare crash when drawing ship health summary
- fixed rare crash when unloading troops at colony
- fixed rare crash when fleet checks whether should invade colony
- fixed rare crash when displaying trade offer with independent colony locations
- fixed crash when determining random docking position for ship
- fixed crash when drawing empire economy
- fixed crash when showing some tour screens

START NEW GAME SCREEN
- in Start New Game screen added warning borders and tooltips to indicate when the largest galaxy sizes may cause performance issues on some systems, especially if played into the late game or without victory conditions.
- ensure player starting relation level for other empires (Start New Game screen) excludes pirate protection and selects correct trade treaty (RTA, LTA, FTA)

PERFORMANCE AND MEMORY MANAGEMENT
- significant performance improvements, especially for large late-game galaxies
- improved general memory management
- improved memory management when rendering character animations
- galaxy-level star drawing and some other rendering now uses instancing, improving rendering performance
- further improved rendering performance in Control Center lists, especially in large late-games

SOUND DESIGN
- Thanks to generous work by Jeff Dodson of rainfall.tv, we have added new significantly improved and rebalanced sound effects for most components and weapons, explosions, etc. Jeff's trailer sound design work is heard in small projects like “Star Wars” and should help spice up combat among other things.

DIPLOMACY AND REPUTATION
This area has had a comprehensive overhaul, both to fix reported issues but also to rebalance reputation and relationship modifiers (including the penalties for being stronger than your neighbors), how reputation interacts with relationship and colony happiness and how much reputation affects how empires see each other and how your people see their own empire.

We’ve also added the missing Subjugated Vassal relationship and expanded the role and feedback related to Ambassadors, which are needed for the more advanced treaty types and also improve the rate of improvement for positive long-term relations and accelerate the decay of negative relations when assigned to an empire.

Finally, a lot of work went into fixing issues related to how wars end and how willing the AI was to negotiate the ends of wars correctly. All of this should make Diplomacy more rewarding as a playstyle, but also significantly decrease problems related to diplomacy and reputation for more warlike factions.

Subjugated Vassals:
- empires that are losing war now much more likely to be willing to end the war, and even to become your subjugated vassal when losing badly
- added Subjugated Vassal diplomatic relation type (see Galactopedia for details: Game Concepts > Diplomacy - Treaty Types)
- clarified description of treaty trade item for Subjugated Vassal in Diplomacy Trade screen ('Offer to become Subjugated Vassal')
- tooltips on Peace and Subjugation trade items in diplomacy trade screen now include indication of value of extra incentive required when other faction wants additional inducement to end war
- ensure vassal tribute income properly shown in Projected column of Annual Income section in Economy screen

Diplomatic Strategy:
- high-level diplomatic strategy now pays more attention to overall situation for faction, not just one-on-one relations. Thus more likely to seek out allies against threatening neighbors, even when would not normally otherwise ally with faction.
- diplomatic strategy now also affects empire evaluation of neighboring strength. Concern about strength will be greater if their diplomatic strategy towards you is a negative one.
- preserve existing diplomatic treaty when matches current strategy for faction, even when evaluation drops below typical level for the treaty (e.g. advisor suggestions)
- now force immediate update of each faction's diplomatic strategy whenever conclude trade, change treaty, etc in diplomatic conversation screen

Pirate Wars:
- fixed bug where wars would start with pirate factions when they raid your colonies
- ensure capturing pirate base eliminates pirate faction (not just when destroy pirate base)

Diplomatic Reputation:
- capped maximum and minimum reputation levels
- adjusted soft cap to impact of reputation in diplomacy
- high reputation now also reduces envy factor from other empires ('We are envious of your huge strength and power')
- reputation impact from events is halved when above or below high or low thresholds, meaning that extreme reputation levels, once achieved, are slower to shift
- reputation factors on average now decay much more slowly, especially if your reputation is strongly positive or negative
- less concern over others' reputations when you and other faction both have positive or negative reputation levels, i.e. more concerned when other faction has opposite reputation to you as well as a significant reputation gap
- you can now gain positive reputation from additional actions such as releasing prisoners, signing new treaties, researching diplomacy techs, destroying hive ships and planet destroyers
- rebalanced all reputation impacts and decay rates
- no negative reputation impact from espionage against pirates
- diplomacy trend values update faster than previously. Reputation trend values update much faster than previously. This means that as your relationship or reputation change, it will take less time for other empires to notice and reflect that change in their relationship with you.
- honoring defense treaty by declaring war on aggressor no longer incurs war justification penalty or war grace period penalty ('too soon since last war')
- fixed bug when modifying empire reputation near minimum or maximum limits
- updated Empire Reputation Galactopedia article to include explanation of Slavery and Extermination colony population policies
- reduced overall impact of very good or very poor reputation on colony happiness
- once empire reputation goes over +10 or below -10 then has diminished impact on colony happiness

Diplomatic Relationships:
- updated values for long-term diplomacy effects for some treaty types to better balance diplomatic progress
- capped display of diplomacy trend values so that do not show misleadingly high or low values even when have fast-moving trend (trend magnitude never larger than target value)
- ensure clear some positive diplomacy values with other faction when they bombard, invade or destroy one of your colonies
- lowered soft cap for some diplomacy factors: relationship and beneficial treaties with friends and enemies
- fixed buggy display of diplomatic relation incident trend values when transition from positive to negative or vice versa
- ensure cancel treaties with other faction when they bombard, invade or destroy one of your colonies
- adjusted soft cap for some diplomatic factors: relationship with friends, relationship with enemies

Ambassadors:
- some high-level treaty types now require an ambassador to be assigned to the foreign capital before they will be accepted
- ambassadors now properly apply diplomacy bonus to modify evaluation of your empire by assigned faction (when at faction capital)
- the diplomacy screen now correctly shows the consolidated effect of any assigned ambassadors and your leader on a given faction

Trade and Negotiation:
- diplomacy trade panel adds new functionality to move view to trade items that are visible to your faction. Click 'eye' icon at right side of trade item
- bases available for trade in diplomacy trade screen now show as 'Unknown Base' when not visible to player
- ensure all techs valued properly in trade deal screen (none should be zero unless truly worthless to other faction)
- fixed tech trading sometimes excluding research projects that you do not have access to (e.g. projects that your tech tree has no path to, even though other faction has researched the project). Note that tech trading does properly exclude projects based on your tech level in a research area, but this fix now deliberately includes projects that you may not have a path to (when appropriate for your tech level). Note that this fix also applies to some other situations where you can acquire tech, e.g. when conquering an enemy colony, when using spies to steal tech.

Diplomatic Techs and Assimilation:
- colony population assimilation rates for specific races now improved by researching diplomacy projects in tech tree at rate of 10% per improved relationship point

Treaty Fixes:
- ensure Intelligence Sharing treaty now properly shares results of espionage missions with partners
- ensure Research treaty properly gives bonuses to each factions research speed

War Resolution:
- lowered threshold from war losses where an empire will consider ending a war (more likely to end war when losing badly)
- empires now more willing to offer incentives to end unwanted wars
- unhappiness from war weariness now applied to colonies with race and govt mitigation factors (mainly based on war weariness reduction), so that aggressive factions now have less unhappiness from war weariness and thus less negative impact from wars
- empires now more likely to honor minimum interval between wars with same faction
- vassal empires now include minimum interval between wars with same faction when considering whether to rebel against parent empire
- fixed bug where diplomatic incidents were being applied to wrong empire when declare war while still have Defense or Non-Aggression treaty
- fixed bug where offers to end war sometimes cannot be accepted

RESEARCH

This is another area which benefited from a significant amount of development attention. Based on community feedback, we found that Random research in particular was not working as intended.

The intention was always that when choosing Random research, some techs or sub-trees could be missing from the research tree. This does not mean that they are absent from the game, but that they would need to be enabled through trade, espionage, exploration, salvage or conquest rather than just through research. We also found that some random paths were being incorrectly generated and thus required too many pre-requisites for some projects or made others available that should not have been. With this update, Random research issues should be resolved.


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on November 02, 2022, 12:45:04 PM
Continuation of the 1.0.8.3 release notes;

Quote
We also fixed a variety of other issues and began improving the research AI. More work in this area will come in the next series of updates.

- altered how research project prerequisites work: now often only require a subset of all the prerequisites for a project instead of all prerequisites as previously. This fixes the issue where race-specific techs added to the required prerequisite paths instead of just being a part of them.
- research project bonus requirement amounts now scale with galaxy size - larger galaxies have higher research bonus threshold requirements due to being easier to find the necessary research bonus locations
- fixed bug where research projects with fallback paths were sometimes not appearing on tech tree when should have
- now exclude race-specific tech from non-playable races when stealing or trading tech, or acquiring through other means (e.g. colony conquest)
- tweaked which research projects an empire can acquire through colony conquest
- tweaked which research projects are available for trade and stealing (spy missions): spies can now perform repeated steal tech missions for same project even when visible to their empire
- set default maximum concurrent research projects to 1 in empire policy
- fixed some research projects remaining invisible after steal tech spy mission or acquire through other non-standard means
- fixed bug where minimum path count for some research project prerequisites were defaulting to one, which was incorrectly reducing the number of prerequisites that needs to first be researched
- fixed research projects sometimes incorrectly showing up on tech tree when no parent paths (when using randomized research)
- fixed higher level research projects sometimes improperly being researchable even when have no path to them from base of tech tree
- fixed some research projects not generating with all required prerequisite paths
- ensure pirate factions exclude some research projects at game start that they value lower (colonization, facilities, diplomacy), thus not being available to trade or steal from them
- now allow AI to initiate research projects even when uses reserved spending (colony ships, wonders) when there are no projects in the queue and the project initiation cost is relatively low
- slightly reduced AI research priority for diplomacy techs
- slightly reduced AI research priority for some planetary facilities, especially research facilities

MIGRATION, COLONIZATION AND COLONY POPULATION POLICY
- ensure migrating populations honor colonization minimum suitability level from empire policy, i.e. race does not migrate to a colony unless suitability is +20 or better (default level)
- automated colony ship construction now considers preferred colonization race (suitability) and location of colonization target when determining where to build new colony ship (first choice is closest colony to target with preferred colonization race)
- added further improvements when selecting construction locations for automated colony ships, especially when handling multiple simultaneous manually-queued colonization targets
- fixed bug where colony ships could sometimes continually load and unload colonists but never colonize a target, especially when have many queued colonization targets and many colony ships
- reduced colonies constantly rebelling when using enslave or exterminate policy. However note that using these policies will increase unrest of affected races at your colonies, likely eventually leading to rebellion
- fixed issue where constantly rebelling colony with population set to exterminate would push population above 30 million, thus never completing extermination
- ensure colony is removed when all of its population is exterminated (population policy)

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- tweaked default fleet templates: larger Attack and Invade fleets
- ships added to fleets via topup now check whether have enough fuel to reach fleet, if not then first refuel at nearby location before proceeding to form-up with fleet
- automated generation of invasion fleets now also checks whether have enough existing troops or spare troop maintenance to supply troops from army template for new fleet
- when a ship changes fleets it now auto-cancels any escort missions for old fleet (escorting fleet capital ships)
- ensure ships that get stuck inside stars/planets/etc can always properly extricate themselves without other factors overriding that behavior
- automated construction ships now more willing to repair abandoned ships and bases when no other bases to build
- Capture ship missions now assigned and retained even when no assault pods currently available (cool down timer)
- now indicate unavailable assault pod status in Selection Panel and Weapons Report window when ship is assigned a Capture mission
- when a colony is invaded and conquered by another faction then non-military ships from the previous empire clear any missions at the colony (when two empires are still at war)
- fighters onboard carriers or bases no longer affected by location effects (storms, etc)
- ensure fleets that are manually assigned to attack enemy fleets at same location always carry out mission, even when not at war
- reduced default ratio of military ships not in fleets (empire policy)
- slightly reduced number of raid fleets for empire
- changed default engagement range for Invasion Fleets from 50% Fuel Range to Nearby
- mining ships now more careful to select mining targets within fuel range, including whether inside nebulae clouds
- troop transports in invasion fleets that are invading an enemy colony now attempt to better coordinate assault pod launch (troop drop) so that close together instead of piecemeal landing. Also indicate when waiting for extra invasion forces in mission description in Selection Panel
- fixed bug where a ships intercept weapons were sometimes incorrectly being used to bombard an enemy colony even when only assigned attack mission against colony (not bombard)

CONSTRUCTION AND SHIP DESIGN
- fixed Build Order screen sometimes building wrong design for role
- slightly adjusted construction balance for military ship types: generally fewer escorts and more larger ships
- increased military ship building levels
- ensured default design templates for defensive bases include Ion Defense components
- fixed ships not always being upgraded when research new tech
- ensure Energy To Fuel converter component works properly

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- added new button to Population Policy screen: apply policy to all colonies of this type (e.g. Marshy Swamp, Volcanic, Sandy Desert, etc)
- enabled shift-click to multi-select range of designs in Designs List screen
- Control Center now pauses list updates while hovering over list items (list items retain order) to avoid having to deal with list changes while trying to take a list action
- now immediately updates right-click mission for hovered item when select an item via hotkey (no need to move mouse), e.g. allow immediate right-click attack of hovered enemy target when select fleet via hotkey

- made it clearer in user interface when undertaking an action that will very negatively affect your reputation: Bombardment, Slavery and Extermination colony policies, declaring war in wrong situation (insufficient justification, too soon since last war, existing Non Aggression treaty, existing Defense treaty), invading independent colonies, invading colonies when not at war, destroying colonies
- now show fleet jump range for selected fleet in galaxy view as dashed orange circle (in addition to fuel range)
- ambassador contributions to diplomacy are now properly called out in the diplomacy tab
- indicate when characters drawn in list items are transferring to new location (transparent image with tooltip explanation)
- immediately update system view summary (bottom-middle of screen) when double-click item to change view
- added explanation in tooltip of action button when cannot build mining station or other base at location due to missing active design
- fixed mined and known locations amounts sometimes being out-of-date in Resources list
- fixed missing callout lines and tooltips in summary panel (bottom-middle of screen)
- fixed height of text panel in Tour screen sometimes being too short
- fixed some scrollable text panels missing their vertical scroll bar when text is higher than panel
- ensure empires have different colors and flags even when multiple empires of same race
- doubled the number of available empire flags
- fixed non-clipped rendering artifacts in Start New Game screen
- made galaxy nebula clouds more visible
- fixed some text problems with fullscreen messages

COLONY MANAGEMENT
- slightly adjusted planetary facility building levels, colony population and development should be larger before some facilities are built
- reduced population level for building a small spaceport at a colony in default policy settings
- increased target tax rate for medium-sized colonies to +20 (from +10) in default policy settings to encourage faster growth
- ensure colonies always have proper resource stock levels for building bases and ships
- avoid using reserved spending to build planetary facilities when automation is Suggest. Instead wait until have funds then suggest to player

EXPLORATION
- ensure range for discovering lost colony exceeds exploration range so that exploration ships always discover
- fixed new bug where exploration ships were sometimes stopping exploration beyond home system
- slightly reduced tech level of ships in most debris fields
- ensure abandoned ships and bases do not use excessive race-specific tech

GAME EVENTS
- ensure plagues and disasters do not strike same colony too often (no simultaneous plagues, minimum interval between)
- extended Game Events so that can have multiple filters for TriggerRaceIds and NonTriggerRaceIds
- moved AllConditionsMustBeMet flag on Game Event and Actions (no longer part of Conditions list)
- fixed minor text issue with some Hive threat messages
- fixed minor text layout issues for some ruin discovery messages

IN-GAME EDITOR
- changing a star name in game editor now also changes the corresponding system name on the galaxy map

MODDING SUPPORT
- now support overriding loaded data items by Id value for all XML file types (Races, Research Project Definitions, Ship Hulls, Troop Definitions, etc) based on additional data files that start with the same name (as a prefix). IDs should still be unique across all files.

OTHER
- fixed time to transfer character to new location sometimes being excessively long
- ensure message filter empire flag images are properly loaded
- ensure pre-expanded empire colonies (at game start) have good suitability levels
- added setting to Game Settings screen for opt-in/out of auto-sending anonymized error reporting
- auto-delete game settings to ensure new default policy settings are applied in new games
- ensure SavedGames folder exists before using Continue Game button
- enabled Sentry error reporting
- included all files in win-x64 folder that may fix freetype.dll error issues some had when launching 1.0.6.4

DATA
- various data file fixes, balance tweaks and updates, including some buffs for the Boskara and a fix for the Zenox starting with far too large a research bonus (the +20% was supposed to be only on their ancient homeworld, if you can find it)
- rebalanced some government modifiers to make certain government types less corrupt and unhappy to ease economic challenges
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on November 02, 2022, 12:53:33 PM
That’s quite the list - game is low down on priority list but I’m sure I’ll revisit eventually
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on November 03, 2022, 06:03:50 AM
It looks like a nice update; I'm almost tempted to try it out.  Almost. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on November 25, 2022, 06:51:12 PM
I think I'm going to shelve this for a bit.

1.  To do a game with 1000 star systems, it's recommended you have 8 CPU cores and 12GB RAM.  For 1000 it's 10 CPU cores and 16GB RAM and a 2000 star system game it's 12 cores and 24GB RAM!  My desktop is only 6 cores, so anything over 700 systems, I'll need to use my laptop.

2.  In my current game I'm about 130 years in.  My Galaxy Aggression is set to Chaos and Difficulty is set to Very Hard.  I've had one other empire, out of 12, declare war on me.  One. 

3.  I don't see an option to close my boarders to other empires.  I colonized a planet in a system that had a mining base in it, but the system wasn't inside the empires boarders.  I couldn't demand the base and any ships leave. 

4.  In the last few sessions, I hit the pause button, and I still see my income, money and population changing for a good 15 seconds afterwards.  Even seeing pop ups coming and disappearing while the game is paused. 

5.  It seems like the devs are forcing you the player to play a xenophile empire.  If you try and play xenophobe, you own population penalizes you.  Even when the other empire has a race that you naturally hate and they hate you in return.

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on February 10, 2023, 07:17:50 AM
massive update and mod workshop has dropped in beta - lots of youtubers saying its time to restart your game and get back into it
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on February 10, 2023, 06:02:43 PM
Saw that.  I remain skeptical, though I would prefer my pessimism to be misplaced for once. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on February 10, 2023, 07:05:36 PM
Yeah it’s a big time sink to get a couple of hours in and realise somethings not working right - the two lengthy games I’ve had so far pre this fix have been very entertaining and remarkably peaceful - it’s almost been like a management game with no violence whatsoever despite been at war a couple of times - I’ll wait for some feedback first
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on February 11, 2023, 10:20:49 PM
I'm still not happy that to get past 700 systems in a game, you have to have an 8 core processor.  And to get to the max of 2000, you need 12 cores.  Especially since I just purchased a new CPU last year. 
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on February 11, 2023, 10:35:53 PM
#cpugoals
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 02, 2023, 02:54:08 PM
The big Aurora update dropped today: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/news/distant-worlds-2-aurora-update-out-now


From what I've been reading/hearing, it sounds like Aurora marks the end of primary development on the main game, so to speak.  Or rather, this places the game in the state at where it *should* have been when it launched last year. 




Erik demonstrates some the updated gameplay here: 




He also talks about upcoming plans for the game this year.  Sounds like two race pack DLC's are slated for sure, with the Ikkuro and Dhayut DLC being released later this month.  He also said they're working on a major expansion as well, though details (including a release date) are a bit vague. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: bayonetbrant on March 02, 2023, 02:56:44 PM
I GOT CODEZ!

(who wants to write something for us? :D )
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on March 02, 2023, 04:31:54 PM
For the whole game? That’s pretty swish
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 20, 2023, 04:23:42 AM
Been dipping my toes back in this past week.  Haven't decided how much fun I'm having yet, but at least it's fairly relaxing when you're playing full auto (more or less).  And yes, that's generally how I roll when playing DWU/DW2, especially in the early game; unlike most folks who apparently want to manually do everything, I actually enjoy sitting back and watch my empire do its thing. 

I forget sometimes just how bloody slow things start out in this game.  I can see the appeal, but it really does take some getting used to.  I did notice that asteroids get surveyed much more quickly now, however (I kinda recall that change being made a while back), which is definitely welcome. 

The pop-up notifications on the right side get damned annoying:  They don't automatically go away once I've made a choice (approve, decline, etc.) when I choose to view them.  In addition, pop-ups automatically open whenever you mouse over them; when most of the time, I'm just trying to right-click to dismiss them.  Grr.  There has to be a better way. 

The game needs better feedback/notifications for the player:  I ordered a construction ship to build a mining base at a moon, but it went all the way back to the spaceport instead...and then it went back out and constructed the mining base.  (This took a good five minutes in real time, on the fastest speed setting; I spent those five minutes yelling at my monitor and almost rage-quitting.)  I finally realized -- after the fact -- that my constructor had needed to return to the spaceport to get the requisite resources for building said mining base first.  Getting some sort of notification informing me of this would have saved a lot of frustration.  (If there *was* some sort of notification that I missed, it wasn't obvious.) 

There should be a way to mark things -- such as a pirate station -- as off-limits, so that my ships don't repeatedly stumble into their weapons range.  (I guess Stellaris has spoiled me in this regard, but I think it'd be a good idea for DW2 have something similar.) 


Despite my complaints/critiques, I'm enjoying the game enough at the moment that I'm continuing to play it an hour or two here & here. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: ojsdad on March 25, 2023, 10:14:52 PM
Thanks for the update Martok.  I think all that you pointed out are quality of life improvements that they should have addressed already, as they all existed in the previous version.  I've been playing Stellaris a lot again, and it's amazing how smoothly it handles notifications compared to DW2. 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on March 26, 2023, 01:30:47 PM
Yeah, it's kinda sad -- though not surprising, given DW2's launch state last year -- that it's taken this long just to get the game up to a point I would consider (more or less) acceptable:  It's not even great or amazing, but merely "all right" IMO. 

Those who never really played the first game will probably enjoy DW2 just fine.  But for those of us who *did* play (and enjoy) the original Distant Worlds, I suspect most would still find the current experience somewhat underwhelming.  It'll be interesting to see what the game looks like a few years from now with multiple DLC/expansions added to it; maybe/hopefully by then, it will feel like the more fleshed out product we were used to with Distant Worlds: Universe. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on April 24, 2023, 01:23:14 PM
The latest roadmap: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=394862





The highlights: 

1.)  The next major update (dubbed "Hyperspeed") should be released sometime next month, and will apparently provide a major boost to performance (hence the name). 

2.)  The second faction DLC will feature the Quameno and Guizerians, and is due out late summer. 

3.)  The major expansion the devs are working on is (no surprise) focused on the Shakturi.  No release date at this point has been announced, however. 

4.)  Existing factions will gradually be updated to a similar level as the Ikkuro and Dhayut (in regards to faction differentiation). 

5.)  Going forward, public betas will come out every other week on average, with major updates being released approximately every 2-3 months. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on May 28, 2023, 01:14:28 PM
The new "Hyperspeed" update dropped Friday: 


https://www.slitherine.com/news/distant-worlds-2-hyperspeed-update-out-now




Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on May 28, 2023, 02:40:02 PM
Booted it up to check it updated earlier - I might start a new run next week
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 14, 2023, 12:34:59 PM
Matrix is looking for more beta-testers to help out with their upcoming DLC: 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=396153




I'm guessing this is for the Quameno and Gizurean races, though I suppose it could also be for the Shakturi expansion. 


Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Anguille on June 14, 2023, 01:11:42 PM
Man, I still have to complete a full game of Distant Worlds before that  :doh:
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Martok on June 15, 2023, 01:47:31 PM
So do I.  ::) 

Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Undercovergeek on August 24, 2023, 12:58:13 PM
when you wait 6 months to start a new game and the day after they release a massive update, the last final amazzzzzzzzzing update

sigh

start again

All the goodies here - TLDR - new game set up options, new guardians of ancient knowledge, new hive - like the big bad guys in stellaris

https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/DistantWorlds2/whatsnew.pdf
Title: Re: Distant Worlds 2
Post by: Huw the Poo on October 28, 2023, 06:10:05 PM
After that "Hyperspeed" update (which was the "it definitely works now guys" update that the Aurora update before it was supposed to be) I have to admit it's finally starting to come together. Still needs loads of QoL improvements that have been discussed a lot in this thread but I haven't been forced to abandon my current game yet, which is a first.