RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (Full Version)

All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series



Message

Shark7 -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/13/2014 6:45:44 PM)

Although, wouldn't it be awesome to conquer your galaxy, only to find a jump gate and open up a completely new galaxy with new enemies to play in? You still get resources from your first conquered galaxy, but get to start over in a new one.

Just imagine if the game gave us as many stars that actually exist in galaxies. Our own galaxy has 400 billion stars in it...the scale would be overwhelming.



Jim D Burns -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/13/2014 6:48:00 PM)

Well, you’d have to have some kind strategic overlay at that level so instead of seeing ships on map you’d only see icons representing large fleets. Only big battles would zoom you down to see ship sized action. Merchants and whatnot would also need some kind of spreadsheet style queue to keep track of things that again only zoomed in to the battles themselves.

But what a grand epic a game on such a scale could be. I can envision AAR’s that last years in the making real time.

Jim



Jim D Burns -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/13/2014 6:56:07 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shark7

Although, wouldn't it be awesome to conquer your galaxy, only to find a jump gate and open up a completely new galaxy with new enemies to play in? You still get resources from your first conquered galaxy, but get to start over in a new one.

Just imagine if the game gave us as many stars that actually exist in galaxies. Our own galaxy has 400 billion stars in it...the scale would be overwhelming.


The game Aurora kind of scratches that itch, though I doubt anyone would ever go beyond a few hundred stars in that game given how detailed and complex the game is. But basically it’s an unending Universe, explore a new jump hole and the game creates the systems linked to that jump hole and any systems linked to the new system. It also creates additional systems for any possible newly discovered races in the new system. So potentially it’s an unending universe limited only by your patience to deal with the complex game system.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php#3

Jim



Ares106 -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/14/2014 12:16:38 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

The game Aurora kind of scratches that itch,


I took a look at it...

Would be nice if they add some graphics (not spectacular but at least functional) to that game, you need a lot of imagination to turn spreadsheets into a space opera.

I hope the same way we have an explosion of dwarf fortress type games with graphics, someone will eventually do the same with Aurora.



feygan -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/14/2014 10:17:25 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Ares106


quote:

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

The game Aurora kind of scratches that itch,


I took a look at it...

Would be nice if they add some graphics (not spectacular but at least functional) to that game, you need a lot of imagination to turn spreadsheets into a space opera.

I hope the same way we have an explosion of dwarf fortress type games with graphics, someone will eventually do the same with Aurora.


It is designed to be without graphics as is was built more as a tool for story telling than as a video game. Also if you had even basic dwarf fortress level graphics it would cause most machines to implode with the sheer amount of data needed to process each turn cycle.

If you have the imagination to deal with the spreadsheets and the patience for the slow pace it is probably one of the best 4x games around and will be for at least a couple of years.



Athelas2211 -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/17/2014 5:26:38 AM)

I'd really love DW2 to have huge technology trees for races and it would change the graphics and playing of the game through ages..
For techonolgies:
would be great to get them tohrough stealing, trade, ancient sites or relics, conquest, reverse engineering of wrecks or captured ships, but some specific racial techs (some variable each game?) should be kept a secret, unless you vassalize a race.
On another thing,
AI in trading should be very capable. It shouldn't sell it's important research without trying to get a worthiness higher then real worth.
also, an erratic element of chance, graded by each race behaviours , could spicen the diplomacy and trading?



Ralzakark -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/17/2014 7:15:40 AM)

For me,

- Different galaxy and solar system types. I'd like to play in a barred spiral or elliptical galaxy and find stars orbited by hot jupiters.

- Ability to manage relationships with other races at a greater level of granularity. For example, if I am playing as Human I cannot currently set my colonies to allow Wekkarus in but keep Gizureans out. The differences between races have increased noticably since the original Distant Worlds, but I'd be happy to see even more.

- Improved and expanded diplomacy.



ChildServices -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/17/2014 8:25:49 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: athelas.loraiel

I'd really love DW2 to have huge technology trees for races and it would change the graphics and playing of the game through ages..
For techonolgies:
would be great to get them tohrough stealing, trade, ancient sites or relics, conquest, reverse engineering of wrecks or captured ships, but some specific racial techs (some variable each game?) should be kept a secret, unless you vassalize a race.
On another thing,
AI in trading should be very capable. It shouldn't sell it's important research without trying to get a worthiness higher then real worth.
also, an erratic element of chance, graded by each race behaviours , could spicen the diplomacy and trading?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ralzakark

For me,

- Different galaxy and solar system types. I'd like to play in a barred spiral or elliptical galaxy and find stars orbited by hot jupiters.
- Ability to manage relationships with other races at a greater level of granularity. For example, if I am playing as Human I cannot currently set my colonies to allow Wekkarus in but keep Gizureans out. The differences between races have increased noticably since the original Distant Worlds, but I'd be happy to see even more.
- Improved and expanded diplomacy.

Everything here.
I'd also really like the economy to expanded a lot. Introduce things like corporations, monopolies, entrepreneurship, trade unions and even the idea of charity or welfare.

Also I think government and policy should be much more complicated and more relevant to one-another than they are now. I'll give some examples for a republic. Obviously each government would treat these things differently.
  • Your empire has a senate, which has a chance to block your attempts at changing things in the policy screen, tax-rates of your colonies or even stop you declaring war, based on the political parties of each of your senators.
  • You could tie this in with a "public opinion" display, which will give you a rough outline on what your empire's voting trends will be (although to a fairly large margin for error) come time for the elections. By doing certain things, you'd be able to influence public opinion towards keeping a leader character that you like in power, rather than just getting screwed by the RNG after a specific time interval.
  • This could tie into the economy directly in some more unpleasant ways. Say for example a lot of people are starving and poor. Come election time, you might find a few fascists or communists in your senate. If this goes on long enough and you let them continue campaigning and scoring public opinion points, you can find your government changed, or your empire in a civil war. Destroying poverty shouldn't really be enough to get rid of them, though.
  • It'd also add a whole new level of depth if you added the things I spoke about above for the economy side of the game, because you'd be able to have parts of the private sector lobby politicians and contribute money to the campaign funds of certain parties, having them stay in charge longer or have a greater chance of being elected.

    You'd still have a fairly high level of control over your empire (you'd still control almost every aspect of it), but I think having the concept of an NPC government within your empire would give you more internal obstacles to overcome. In the end, I think this would result in a much more dynamic and challenging game.
    Rather than just being an option that gives you different stat boosts and penalties, government would actually be something extremely important to the way the game plays.

    Of course, it'd be good to have the difficulty of your government as something that can be influenced by a slider in your game setup to the point of:
    A) At one extreme, removing all of your policy control and effectively leaving it up to the computer being influenced by your actions*
    B) At the other extreme, turning the feature off entirely so that government functions more like it does in Distant Worlds 1.
    * would depend on what your government actually is. If you're playing as a military dictatorship or anything more authoritarian, there's nobody to really say no to you if you decide that it's time to send all aliens in your empire away to the gas-chambers.

    And also, feudalism/monarchy governments could have something like vassals instead of a senate. The potential to add even more dynamic situations to the game is almost endless.
    You could also opt to have things like constitutional monarchies, which allows your empire to set its own economic policy, whilst you still have a lot of control and can veto things if you think the AI is doing something really stupid.



    • HectorOfTroy -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/17/2014 8:40:51 AM)

    All I need for DW 2 is two things:

    - better graphics: nothing too fancy, still 2D but prettier and better optimized. Stardrive's graphics perhaps.

    - I want fleet control. I want ships to be grouped, ability to put them into different formations (eg, carriers and missile frigates in the back, heavy armoured cruisers in the front, etc) Also, admirals and captains could then provide bonuses to formations, certain ship types (eg fleet admiral would provide bonuses to missile reloads, etc). Ability to keep ships close to each other or spread out, which comes with positives and negatives.




    Athelas2211 -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/17/2014 12:39:08 PM)


    quote:

    ORIGINAL: HectorOfTroy

    All I need for DW 2 is two things:

    - better graphics: nothing too fancy, still 2D but prettier and better optimized. Stardrive's graphics perhaps.

    - I want fleet control. I want ships to be grouped, ability to put them into different formations (eg, carriers and missile frigates in the back, heavy armoured cruisers in the front, etc) Also, admirals and captains could then provide bonuses to formations, certain ship types (eg fleet admiral would provide bonuses to missile reloads, etc). Ability to keep ships close to each other or spread out, which comes with positives and negatives.




    agreed. Even fleet management that can be more AI streamlined, like having set of orders for fleets (the ones less important) like Dominions has.



    Raap -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (5/17/2014 11:58:37 PM)

    I'd like an improved engine. A 3D engine, but one using sprites(like now) instead of actual 3D models. It should support animated sprites, which would make it possible to make significantly better-looking ships and weapon effects(like in StarDrive/Starsector), and it should have more 'physical' combat where you feel the ships and weapon impacts actually have weight behind them. Which would make the game very demanding CPU-wise, which in turn would require great multithreading.

    On the gameplay/modding side, I would essentially want what's planned for DW:U. More, if possible, but definitely not less. I despise when sequels scrap significant portions of the features of previous games.



    ChildServices -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (6/1/2014 5:24:20 AM)

    All planets in the game could start with generic names like "MLG420", and then be automatically given a randomly generated name that relates to the race that colonises it first. This is actually how we deal with most exoplanets today; I can't imagine we'll continue to refer to Gliese 581G as. . . well, that, if we actually start living there.



    Timotheus -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (6/1/2014 6:36:45 AM)

    More intra-empire politics. Decisions that matter and have benefits and risks attached to them. From sponsoring political movements to dirty plays like assassinations and framing and criminal acts. At least 5 factions vying for power in each race (for example, lets start with generic examples of militarists, environmentalists, industrialists, xenopohobes and embrace-the-alien-crowd.... but alien races can have different religious sects, or some really nutty, fun stuff indeed, your imagination is the limit here [;)] )


    A bit of a role-playing element shamelessly stolen from Crusader Kings 2. A popup message about what's happening in the empire (based on which faction is in power and what's happening OR just random) and you have a multiple choice answer. Each choice has its benefits and demerits, of course. Would help the game TREMENDOUSLY and help the immersion a lot.



    More options to interact with other races. Right now we have trade, sanctions (prelude to war) and war. I want more possibilities to interact with other empires.
    Aaaaaaaand having 5 intra-empire factions vying for power will open up the gameplay tremendously, as you can (covertly or officially) support one or more factions with PR, spying, or official government support.


    More stuff to do pre-warp. Launching satellites... can't think of anything else, but pirates were added to the game as a crutch because the pre-warp was so lacking. Pirates out, pre-warp stuff in.


    Each race SHOULD HAVE ITS OWN TECH TREE. I cannot stress this enough. And each race should optimize, let me repeat this, OPTIMIZE their ship and base designs using that racial tech tree. Of course you will be able to trade for/steal each other's techs.


    For battles, have full 3D Homeworld style RTS battles once fleets meet.


    Even more varied racial victory conditions. Again, going with intra-empire factions - a race XYZ can win when xenophobes are in power, no alien population on your worlds and you are top 5 empire in galaxy. Or, same race XYZ, winning means industrialists are in power and your race has the most industry in the galaxy.


    DW does not feel epic. Yeah, I said it. Early hyperdrives should not allow you to go everywhere in the galaxy. There should be a definite distance limit for the early hyperdrives, and only the last researched kind should allow you to move across the map.


    Got it?

    Good.

    Get to it, my wallet is waiting.



    ChildServices -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (6/1/2014 7:28:28 AM)


    quote:

    ORIGINAL: Timotheus

    More intra-empire politics. Decisions that matter and have benefits and risks attached to them. From sponsoring political movements to dirty plays like assassinations and framing and criminal acts. At least 5 factions vying for power in each race (for example, lets start with generic examples of militarists, environmentalists, industrialists, xenopohobes and embrace-the-alien-crowd.... but alien races can have different religious sects, or some really nutty, fun stuff indeed, your imagination is the limit here [;)] )

    A bit of a role-playing element shamelessly stolen from Crusader Kings 2. A popup message about what's happening in the empire (based on which faction is in power and what's happening OR just random) and you have a multiple choice answer. Each choice has its benefits and demerits, of course. Would help the game TREMENDOUSLY and help the immersion a lot.

    More options to interact with other races. Right now we have trade, sanctions (prelude to war) and war. I want more possibilities to interact with other empires.
    Aaaaaaaand having 5 intra-empire factions vying for power will open up the gameplay tremendously, as you can (covertly or officially) support one or more factions with PR, spying, or official government support.

    Yes! I think Victoria 2 style internal politics would benefit this game massively.



    Omena -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (6/1/2014 8:51:37 AM)

    I personally would not pay for just bigger and prettier. Such things can be nice, yes, but it's the inside that counts...

    DW has many things right. Details of space determine your strategic actions. There aren't many artificial constraints (like sudden unhappiness after some critical tax-value or exponential costs for things (makes them binary).) AI empires have some personality. Planetary development is abstracted so that you can focus on just the strategic choices there (facilities that benefit the entire empire and local military facilities.) Combat strategy is based on actual locations and their details.

    However, there are some things that could be still improved:
    - Space combat not just where, but also how. Ships should have tactical roles and weapons too. More controls for tactical choices.
    - Diplomatic institutions that enable more diplomatic maneuvers. More options for dealing with conflicts (tribute, trade advantages etc.)
    - Research should not be just about what you research, but also how much. Research with a cost and thus a choice there too.
    - A tool to decide: credits. All choices of how much of this or that, I should be able to make with credits. Be it by taxes, tolls, maintainance, gifts, contracts, subsidising migration to a particular planet or paying for extra workforce there, my credits should determine my ability to do so.
    - The tool should be a sharp as my strength. Credits from taxes (slowing development of the planet), from traders by tolls (private sector), tourists paying for sights (their private sector again) and from all that other give unto me (diplomatic power).
    - And I want to find the numbers where no one way rules supreme. I want to be able to modify game mechanics. Turn off and on those that matter.
    - I want the game to stop me and wonder. Videos, sounds, animations and grim faces for happenings. Maybe planets could sing too.

    That I would pay for.



    Grotius -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Melting Pot (6/1/2014 4:56:23 PM)

    Lots of great ideas here. I especially like suggestions about internal politics a la Victoria 2, and dynastic politics a la Crusader Kings 2. My two cents:

    1. A more variable and somewhat randomized tech tree, a la one of the early MOO games. In one of those games (MOO1 or Moo2, I forget which), you didn't always get every tech every game. It made you play differently from one game to the next, which I enjoyed a lot. Very few modern 4Xs seems to implement this principle, nor do the Civ games. It's my top priority.

    2. Galaxies that are larger and that *feel* larger, a la Aurora. As someone said earlier, I'd like it to be a big accomplish for one of my scouts to traverse the entire galaxy. Right now it happens pretty easily.

    3. Better fonts, prettier graphics, smoother UI. I like the look and feel of Endless Space (though I much prefer the gameplay of DW2). Not sure a 3D galaxy map would be worth the price in system resources, and indeed it might undermine my first priority, by limiting galaxy size.

    And yes, the core idea of DW is unique, and I trust that Eliot will maintain it.



    Page: <<   < prev  1 [2]

    Valid CSS!




    Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI
    1.140625