Distant Worlds 2 Christmas 2019 Sneak Peek! (Full Version)

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Erik Rutins -> Distant Worlds 2 Christmas 2019 Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:38:48 PM)

Hi everyone,

Here's the content that we shared on our end of year Christmas live stream:

First, we confirmed that Distant Worlds 2 will be a 2020 release and there will be a beta test starting sometime next year. Watch this forum for more news on that.

We’ve been working on Distant Worlds 2 for more than four years now and we thought it was time to start giving you a few peeks behind the curtain. There is much more we’ll be showing over the coming months, but we’ll give you a first look today.

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

In general, our goal for Distant Worlds 2 was to make a better Distant Worlds 1, with a new and modern engine. That is a pretty tall order given that by the time we got to the final Distant Worlds: Universe release, about nine years of development and design had gone into Distant Worlds 1.

Distant Worlds 2 is based on an entirely new 64-bit, multi-core capable 3D engine which provides us better performance and the ability to create even larger galaxies with more to explore, more stories to tell and even larger battles. In addition, it allows us to support a fully scalable interface.


Below you see a screen shot for a Teekan Spaceport in orbit around a planet.

[image]local://upfiles/9/09536756CE104639963A83B850EF6193.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:39:19 PM)

For this first peek, we’d like to speak briefly about Ship Design. In this screenshot, you can see the ship design interface and a view of a Mortalen Spaceport.

In Distant Worlds 1, ships were two dimensional units basically defined by their size. Size determined how much could fit in a ship. Each component that could fit in a ship had a size and while you needed some minimum components to get a ship to work, beyond that you could put in whatever you wanted, as long as you stayed within the maximum size. Your size was also essentially your bag of hit points and any damage that wasn’t soaked up by your shields or your armor started destroying components.

In Distant Worlds 2, ships are a bit more interesting.

The below is a screenshot of a Mortalen Spaceport with component slot markers turned on. You may recognize it from our first teaser, but now you get a much better view.


[image]local://upfiles/9/3A3A559311584DC59E90036CB3DEFB2F.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:40:54 PM)

For one thing, they are now three dimensional models. For another, ships now have a hull, which has its own armor rating and ability to take damage, as well as additional space that can fit components. That additional space is divided into slots, which are organized by the broad component category they are intended to fit. When a ship takes a hit, assuming it gets past the shields (which now can allow some damage to “leak” through, but also can have some base resistance against small shots, similar to the reactive rating for armor) and the armor, it may hit the hull or it may hit a component. If your hull is too badly damaged, your ship will be destroyed. If you lose the wrong components, you could also be effectively dead in space, but not necessarily destroyed.

When you are deciding how to build a ship now, you first research a hull, which defines the hull armor, hull size and the size and number of components it can fit.

Below is a screenshot of a Mortalen Spaceport with component slot markers turned off.

[image]local://upfiles/9/EC3B2CD3BC394ED3AD89B6E8480E1722.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:41:49 PM)

Some of these component slots are external (for example, all the weapons and engine, the hangar, some of the defenses). In the case of an external slot, adding a component there is actually reflected on the 3D model of the ship. A ship with four weapons will have four visible weapons, whereas a ship with one will only have one. A ship that has filled out all its possible engine slots to be as fast as possible will visible have more engines, and so on.

In many cases, this means that you can see significant differences in the ship model based on the design style chosen for a particular ship. It’s worth noting that you almost never have enough available space in the hull to fill every possible slot. As with Distant Worlds 1, you can choose to specialize a ship in one or a few areas, or to try to balance its capabilities across all areas.

Within the ship design interface, you can easily view the different categories of components, review the component slots in your selected hull and also see the visualization of the ship and the component slot locations in the center. The right side allows you to see a summary of your ship’s capabilities in a variety of areas.

Below you see a screenshot of an Ackdarian Construction Ship in the Ship Design screen.

[image]local://upfiles/9/52DA6EBCAE894827A2F34FF3FCD93856.jpg[/image]



Bleek -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:42:19 PM)

Thanks Erik.

[&o]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:42:29 PM)

There’s more to say about ship design, but that’s all we will cover for now. We’ll leave you with a few screenshots that show a bit more of the game.

The below is a screenshot of an Ackdarian Spaceport in orbit around an Ocean Planet

[image]local://upfiles/9/6797A14F6F2D453393ADD29F7AA9151B.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:43:05 PM)

This is a view of the planet Sreloor 5 and its moons

[image]local://upfiles/9/E69C8DDD38C1410D9031B4797A564DDE.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:43:38 PM)

This is a view of a red gas giant with a mining station in orbit

[image]local://upfiles/9/37CA9053F3C34CD0BAEFC533B05C8865.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:44:42 PM)

And finally, this is the first sneak peek at the main interface, still work in progress.

This shows a system view in the center, various main interface dialogs in the top left, including the Military one which is open, the selection dialog in the bottom left with some information regarding the selected Mortalen Destroyer, a summary of the planets, ships and stations in the system being viewed in the bottom center, map overlay toggles in the bottom right and victory, settings, message and speed controls in the top right.

We appreciate your interest in Distant Worlds 2 and we hope you enjoyed this preview!

[image]local://upfiles/9/44E856E0FC4646498C07143F56D71505.jpg[/image]



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:46:28 PM)

Hey everyone,

The above was the script and screenshots from the live stream. I also answered some questions there and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have here, as long as they are focused on Ship Design and what's shown in the screenshots above, including the interface elements. I'll check back here frequently over the rest of this week and respond with as much information as I'm allowed to share at this time.

Regards,

- Erik



Bleek -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:47:47 PM)

I just love the scale of things.

Red giant vs the mining station is a brilliant example of why the art direction and scale works, and you guys will only improve things. Exciting!



elvendeathknight -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:51:07 PM)

From the stream chat :
The white components are general internal components. Yellow are the engines, red the weapons, blue the defenses, green the sensors, magenta the hangars.
The data that defines each ship hull is fully externalized and moddable. The 3D models of course are more difficult, but we are building the game to be very robust about accepting 3D model or texture replacements.



elvendeathknight -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:54:31 PM)

I understand that we have to research different kind of hulls. Are they named "Destroyer" and such ?
In the screenshot, there is a destroyer. Is it associated with a specific hull or linked to a role (like in DW1) ?



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 4:58:07 PM)

Here's a bonus screenshot for the forum, because we love you all. [8D] It doesn't show anything that hasn't been shown in the others, except that I thought you might like to see some rings.

A Teekan gas mining station and small freighter in orbit around a ringed gas giant.




[image]local://upfiles/9/8BAD4C10DA4B4C5880B3915DDF628F72.jpg[/image]



btd64 -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:01:11 PM)

Definitely love the scale of things....GP



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:01:53 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ArchMike
I understand that we have to research different kind of hulls. Are they named "Destroyer" and such ?
In the screenshot, there is a destroyer. Is it associated with a specific hull or linked to a role (like in DW1) ?


Yes, on the construction part of the tech tree, you research hulls as part of your research projects. These effectively allow you to build larger ships, but they also unlock particular hulls with somewhat different sizes and maximum component slot arrangements. For example, you can can research a basic Destroyer Hull at Tech Level 2, but at the next Tech Level in the Construction tree, you could research Heavy Destroyers, Fleet Destroyers and Fast Destroyers, each of which is a more advanced and larger destroyer hull, focused and balanced in a somewhat different way. The size matters the most if you are looking for a balanced design. The particular hull matters more if you are looking to focus your design in a particular direction, such as weapons, defenses, speed and maneuverability, sensors, etc.



Medway -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:06:11 PM)

Looks excellent, game will have a whole new level of immersion and depth it seems. Thanks for showing.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:07:19 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: btd64
Definitely love the scale of things....GP


I should also note that the scale of things is adjustable. So if you want the epic realistic space feel you see in the screenshots, you can have it. But if you want ships and stations to be bigger and a bit closer to DW1, that's also going to be possible. By default, we allow for some dynamic scaling so things don't get too small to see before the icons/symbols replace them. The new interface also helps a lot with keeping track of things vs. DW1, even with the epic scale.

The new engine of course also still allows small galaxy games, but it does also allow us to go larger than DW1 if you want an even more massive living galaxy to play in. [8D]



elvendeathknight -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:11:35 PM)

Thanks Erik for the answer concerning hulls.

As you mention larger galaxies, DW1 had 1400 stars and 225 sectors (15x15). What would be the largest galaxy in DW2 ?



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:14:31 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ArchMike
As you mention larger galaxies, DW1 had 1400 stars and 225 sectors (15x15). What would be the largest galaxy in DW2 ?


Well, I honestly can't tell you for sure yet as our final optimizations and performance tests are in the future. However, we've already tested 2000 stars with success in our non-optimized development build.

Regards,

- Erik




elvendeathknight -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:18:38 PM)

Awesome, looking forward to it !



KingHalford -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:22:11 PM)

Amazing stuff! So excited for this!



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:24:04 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: larrybush
I think by your post above there is no way to ask questions about the mod ability of the game at this point?
Like galaxy map editor and stuff like that.


It is too early to really discuss moddability, other than that it remains a priority for us, but I would welcome questions on the screenshots and content above. If you look through the ship design and main interface sneak peeks carefully, there's a lot that you may find to ask about.



Sparviero -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:27:06 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins


quote:

ORIGINAL: ArchMike
I understand that we have to research different kind of hulls. Are they named "Destroyer" and such ?
In the screenshot, there is a destroyer. Is it associated with a specific hull or linked to a role (like in DW1) ?


Yes, on the construction part of the tech tree, you research hulls as part of your research projects. These effectively allow you to build larger ships, but they also unlock particular hulls with somewhat different sizes and maximum component slot arrangements. For example, you can can research a basic Destroyer Hull at Tech Level 2, but at the next Tech Level in the Construction tree, you could research Heavy Destroyers, Fleet Destroyers and Fast Destroyers, each of which is a more advanced and larger destroyer hull, focused and balanced in a somewhat different way. The size matters the most if you are looking for a balanced design. The particular hull matters more if you are looking to focus your design in a particular direction, such as weapons, defenses, speed and maneuverability, sensors, etc.



Hi Erik!
Great Work! Amazing news! Just give as a alpha with a preordered :D

I have a couple of questions about what we are seeing...

1) are sensors a only stations feature? If I'm correct they are present only in the screenshot about a station.

2) The fact we will be able to adjust the scale of things sounds incredible! How do you archive this kind o feature?

3) The down corner left hexagon in the ship/station summary for example in the last screenshot....is it about shields?

4) This is a bit off topic, but I can't handle myself. Are planets still orbiting around stars and moons around planets? DW has one of my favourite visual looking despite the age for this feature.



Bleek -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:28:14 PM)

I like the energy UI, no longer do we have to do quick maths to understand if we're over, short or about to plunge in to darkness because engines have fired up.

The colour-coding on the components too, is a simple but solid move towards a more meaningful UI and ease of build.

Not a major departure from the original, perhaps - but it didn't really need to be.



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:34:59 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sparviero
Hi Erik!
Great Work! Amazing news!


Thank you. [:)]

quote:


1) are sensors a only stations feature? If I'm correct they are present only in the screenshot about a station.


No, they exist on all ships and stations, but the slots can vary in number and size. For example, a small freighter will just support one small sensor, enough for it to navigate and see what's in its vicinity, whereas a Space Port or something like a Fleet Carrier will support many more sensor slots, some of them capable of support larger (like Long Range Sensors that can see across multiple systems or even an entire sector) and more specialized sensor components. Let's say you have a military ship with three sensor slots. Now it can have a short range sensor array, a targeting sensor array and a countermeasures array. Give it another sensor slot, perhaps it could now add on a trace scanner or a trace jammer. Give it a larger sensor slot and now you might add Fleet Targeting or Countermeasures Arrays. Typically the larger the ship or station, the more it can do sensor-wise to not only help itself but help those in its area.

quote:

2) The fact we will be able to adjust the scale of things sounds incredible! How do you archive this kind o feature?


Elliot is very good at his job. [8D] I should note the system for this is already in, we just need to fine tune it once we get into beta testing to make sure it accomodates the preferences of as many players as possible.

quote:

3) The down corner left hexagon in the ship/station summary for example in the last screenshot....is it about shields?


Good question! The center is the remaining hull strength. The first hexagon around it is the remaining armor strength. The outermost hexagon is the remaining shield strength. These act as defense layers, similar to DW1, except that both shields and armor can have resistance now (a flat reduction like reactive armor rating in DW1) and shields can also "leak" meaning some damage may get through even when the shield is still "up". The hull now also has its own reactive armor rating and the components are summarized separately, something easily accessible at the top level from this selection dialog but which we haven't shown yet.

quote:

4) This is a bit off topic, but I can't handle myself. Are planets still orbiting around stars and moons around planets? DW has one of my favourite visual looking despite the age for this feature.


Yes. [8D]



Sparviero -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 5:55:01 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

No, they exist on all ships and stations, but the slots can vary in number and size. For example, a small freighter will just support one small sensor, enough for it to navigate and see what's in its vicinity, whereas a Space Port or something like a Fleet Carrier will support many more sensor slots, some of them capable of support larger (like Long Range Sensors that can see across multiple systems or even an entire sector) and more specialized sensor components. Let's say you have a military ship with three sensor slots. Now it can have a short range sensor array, a targeting sensor array and a countermeasures array. Give it another sensor slot, perhaps it could now add on a trace scanner or a trace jammer. Give it a larger sensor slot and now you might add Fleet Targeting or Countermeasures Arrays. Typically the larger the ship or station, the more it can do sensor-wise to not only help itself but help those in its area.


If I'm correct. We will have some sensors about fog of war that will let us see what is happening in their range, but ships/stations can also have components to hide from these sensors.
And another kind of sensors more battle related about targetting ?


quote:



Elliot is very good at his job. [8D]

[&o]

quote:


Good question! The center is the remaining hull strength. The first hexagon around it is the remaining armor strength. The outermost hexagon is the remaining shield strength. These act as defense layers, similar to DW1, except that both shields and armor can have resistance now (a flat reduction like reactive armor rating in DW1) and shields can also "leak" meaning some damage may get through even when the shield is still "up". The hull now also has its own reactive armor rating and the components are summarized separately, something easily accessible at the top level from this selection dialog but which we haven't shown yet.

This sound very cool!

quote:

Question: This is a bit off topic, but I can't handle myself. Are planets still orbiting around stars and moons around planets? DW has one of my favourite visual looking despite the age for this feature.

Answer: Yes. [8D]



[&o]
[&o][&o]

More questions!

1) Actually I wanted to ask this in my previus post, but I lost my mind XD
I understood there is a lot of customization about ships design, but i'm still confused about the sized. Fixed hulls size sounds like a bit less freedom than in Distan Worlds. Or you can still have ships of every size and ship hulls are more about the new size and components limit tech? So we will probably still have ships of all kind of size becouse we will not use all the slots of a specific hull? I also didn't understand if there is some kind customization about slots number and type beside the ship hull.


2) Second screenshot, downside....what is "Generate Scene Fleet vs Fleet" ? Some kind of way to have a preview about the performance of the selected design?

3) In the weapons summary there is a graphic. It looks like power of the weapons according to distance. Is this correct?

4) Boarding graphic show actually boarding defense and max boarding defence?

5) Sensors info makes think that they will play a mayor role in this game. Stealth/surprising attack will be a important aspect of the game?

6) Looks like we can resize every info tab of the UI ( the grey corner thing )


Thank you very much for your time!



Webbco -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 6:24:55 PM)

My question is: How often will you be showing us other aspects of the game and when will you start?

I'm really curious about the colony development in DW2 but appreciate you cannot show us that yet!!



Erik Rutins -> RE: Distant Worlds 2 Christmas Sneak Peek! (12/19/2019 6:40:47 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Sparviero
If I'm correct. We will have some sensors about fog of war that will let us see what is happening in their range, but ships/stations can also have components to hide from these sensors.
And another kind of sensors more battle related about targetting ?


I can't give much more detail about this at this point as far as going into more specifics about the fog of war system, but in general, every sensor has a counter and some sensor components are very much battle-related.

quote:

1) Actually I wanted to ask this in my previus post, but I lost my mind XD
I understood there is a lot of customization about ships design, but i'm still confused about the sized. Fixed hulls size sounds like a bit less freedom than in Distant Worlds. Or you can still have ships of every size and ship hulls are more about the new size and components limit tech? So we will probably still have ships of all kind of size becouse we will not use all the slots of a specific hull? I also didn't understand if there is some kind customization about slots number and type beside the ship hull.


The hull effectively defines the size limit and the characteristics of the hull. In DW1, you just increased your size limit and your components wffectively were your hull. In DW2 your hull is a separate idea which still increases your size limit but also has some characteristics of its own, including what number and size of each component category it can support.

Because ships have external components now and they are also 3D models, some components like engines and weapons are fully external and thus limited to those slots. This is somewhat limiting in that you can't have an unlimited number of weapons or engines, but at the same time these slot limits are typically on the generous side of realistic compared to DW1 designs so you typically won't be limited by them unless you are really trying to focus a ship in one particular area. That's where the more specialized and larger hulls come in handy, but you need to research those separately.

quote:

2) Second screenshot, downside....what is "Generate Scene Fleet vs Fleet" ? Some kind of way to have a preview about the performance of the selected design?


That is purely for testing in our development build and will not be there in the final release.

quote:

3) In the weapons summary there is a graphic. It looks like power of the weapons according to distance. Is this correct?


That's correct. The width indicates the amount of firepower for that weapon category, the length is the range.

quote:

4) Boarding graphic show actually boarding defense and max boarding defence?


The two colors are the combination of Crew Strength and Boarding Assault Defense.

quote:

5) Sensors info makes think that they will play a mayor role in this game. Stealth/surprising attack will be a important aspect of the game?


Hopefully more so than in DW1. [8D]

The UI first scales fully to your resolution, then is also scalable by the player, but it scales as a whole rather than by individual elements.



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