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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6

 
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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:37:25 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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The Nebula Boundary Map Mode lets you see exactly where the galactic nebulas extend and also (once they are explored) clearly shows which type each nebula is. You can see a Galactic Storm near the top and a Radiation Zone to the left.




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< Message edited by Erik Rutins -- 12/31/2021 7:38:26 PM >


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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:40:10 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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When you are zoomed in, you can use two other map modes to turn on and off the additional symbols behind your ships for easier identification of ship type and also turn on and off the display of weapon ranges for a selected ships and station (shown by the colored circles). Typically you'll see a larger circle in red for long-range weapons and a smaller blue one for point defense weapons, but there can be others and they correspond to the weapon display information on your ship's weapon summary.






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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:41:10 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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The Diplomatic Relations Map Mode shows your relations with the powers you know in the galaxy and also provides a color code for the warmth of those relations on the map.






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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:42:02 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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Here's an image showing most of the diplomatic treaty types. We'll go into more detail on these in a future dev diary.




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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:42:30 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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Here's an example of diplomacy with a very friendly empire of fellow Ackdarians.




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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:43:18 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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Here's an example of negotiating a trade deal.




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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 12/31/2021 7:45:27 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

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The remaining buttons on the bottom right are zoom level shortcuts or allow changing the camera angle, but there's one more that turns off the interface, which allows for some beautiful shots like this. "Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning."

Happy New Year to you all and may you have peace, health and prosperity in the coming year! Thank you for your support through the years.






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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/1/2022 12:17:42 AM   
Galaxy227


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This all looks BRILLIANT! I'm a huge nerd when it comes to data, especially visualizing data (and more especially with maps!).

I have a single (simple) suggestion which I think would go a long way when it comes to helping the player better understand their neighbors' role in the larger galaxy. To start, I believe total firepower and GDP for an empire is hugely important, and argue it should be presented on the map alongside the current diplomatic map mode. There are two ways to go about this in my opinion. Firstly, I suggest adding numerical values for firepower and GDP below the relations value situated in the boxes above each empire's territory on the map. This would make it far easier to visually compare which governments are the wealthiest (GDP), and which are most readily prepared for war (firepower). Secondly, a more comprehensive method (but arguably more difficult) is to add map modes for each respectively, similar to the already-established diplomatic map mode present in the game. This second method of displaying firepower and GDP with maps is better—as colors are simply easier to digest at a quick glance—however, I also understand adding individual firepower & GDP map modes is more difficult to implement. Either way, firepower & GDP are essential measures of any government's capability in Distant Worlds, and having them visualized in the playing galaxy would be a fantastic addition to DW2.

Overall, I really enjoyed sifting through the many details shared with us today. Thank you Erik for responding to my inquiry. Hope all is well with the development team!



< Message edited by Galaxy227 -- 1/1/2022 12:28:48 AM >

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/1/2022 12:23:07 AM   
Galaxy227


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Edit: ignore this, accidentally posted and unsure of how to delete

< Message edited by Galaxy227 -- 1/1/2022 12:26:35 AM >

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/1/2022 12:24:15 AM   
PlacidDragon

 

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That looks absolutely fantastic, thank you Erik, and Happy New Year to everyone :)

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/1/2022 2:15:12 AM   
Cauldyth

 

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Thanks Erik!

Regarding the exploration map mode, any chance of amplifying the green/yellow distinction to make the difference more clear? I'm partially colourblind, and I literally can't tell the difference, everything looks the same colour...

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/1/2022 2:20:42 AM   
zgrssd

 

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Nice detals. And I have a lot of extra questions:
quote:

The Resource Flow Map Mode shows you, when resources are travelling between systems, where they are coming from and where they are going overall. This along with the Resources menu can quickly let you know the key resource locations and vulnerabilities of your economy. Typically this is used to see the flow for a particular key resource as many resources are common enough that there is a lot of flow from multiple locations, at least in times of peace and prosperity.

As with the ship vectors, these red lines are animated and flow to show the source and the main destination. The thickness of the line shows the quantity of the flow.

As you can only see one or all of the 70+ Resources, this would be of limited use. I first need to know which resource is worth filtering for - before I can know to filter for it.

What I wish for was something like this:
1. Internally sort the Elements by empire wide rarity. Either few sources or insufficient produciton for the consumption.
2. For each lane, show me the "worst" color.

For example, Krypton might not actually be that rare - you got at least 2 sources. There might be a dozen more elsewhere. It is maybe not too demanded, given that it is a Luxury resource. So it might only be a "yellow criticality". So even if very few overall comes out of those systems, that might not actually be a bottleneck.
If that is the most sought after resources comming from those systems, the lines would be yellow.

But of if there is another resource I only have one source off (criticality red) and those happen to come from one of those system, those system (lines) would be red.

quote:

Similar to the Resource Flow, you now also have a Migration Flow Map Mode, which can be set by species and otherwise works just like the Resource Flow.


quote:

And along with Resources and Migration, you can also see how your Tourism flows into and out of your empire. In this case, I also opened the resort base menu so that we can see the locations of the existing resort bases highlighted. We can see that our best resort base is the main draw at present.

I just realized a question I never asked before for DW1: Is the money from tourism comming out of nowhere? Or out of the Privaty Economy Funds of the empire whose pops are touring?

What I would picture is:
- a tourist taking a "Budget" out of the sources private economy funds of his source empire. This is their money, that they had saved, that they get to spend
- a tourist pays once for flying to a system and back where they came from (they buy the flight back ahead of time, to avoid issues down the road). Pick a system with a good overall tourism rating.
- they visit all the nice destinations within the system, paying for using and flying to each station/planet
- if they run out of budget, they go on their (already prepaid) flight back home
- if they still have any after seeing all the sights in a system and enough for this, they get a 2-way ticket for another system. There the repeat the process
- if they run out of destinations (they can pay for or have availible), they go back home and put the remaining budget back into the private economy

The basic system is afaik similar to how Rolercoast Tycoon 2 manages guests. They each have a budget and you try to get it out of them as fast as possible (so a new guest with a fresh budget can spawn). they also spawn with 1 of 4 budgets (to represnent various income strata).
RTC has the additional issue of having the spawn guests (as the outside world is not simualted), but DW2 has some more options here.

And in the same way, Migrating people might bring their "personal share" of the Private Economy capital along, reducing the source PE. Slaves would be more willing to leave, but bring along less money.
Naturally each migration and tourism pact should track how you fare in the exchange. How much it costs you in money´(both cases), how much you gain or loose in population (for migration). You could loose pops but gain money or vice versa.

If you are a realy bad destination for tourism, migration or even just a bad palce to people to stay, you would not want permissive tourism and migration treaties. You loose money and population from your private economy funds in both cases.

quote:

The Nebula Boundary Map Mode lets you see exactly where the galactic nebulas extend and also (once they are explored) clearly shows which type each nebula is. You can see a Galactic Storm near the top and a Radiation Zone to the left.

How does one explore a Nebula?
Does cursory sensor coverage (of a specific level) on the border is enough?
Is there a "node" at each nebulas center you have to get enough sensor coverage on? Similar to how DW1 nebulas had mostly empty "solar systems" within them.

What about building stations within those nebulas?
Only at pre-existing sytems/nodes within them?
That theoretical center node?
Or anyhwere?

With enough "gas stations", even a large patch of nebulas might be a viable route. Simply becaue you can take it, and it might be quicker then the long way.

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/3/2022 2:42:59 AM   
USSAmerica


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Looking great, Erik!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/5/2022 1:33:01 AM   
wetpig

 

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Those map modes are amazing and I love the amount of diplomatic options you have! URGE TO PLAY RISING!

Edit: As someone else state the diplomatic map mode does need to be brighter to contrast better with space though.

< Message edited by wetpig -- 1/5/2022 1:34:04 AM >

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RE: Distant Worlds 2 - Dev Diary #6 - 1/5/2022 5:52:36 AM   
moggers

 

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Diplomacy being filled out some more looks wicked, I particularly hope that there's a bit more fleshing out of the relationship states like subjugation and protectorates so that you have more control over those client states.

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