Miletkir
Posts: 589
Joined: 7/7/2020
From: Eastern Nebula
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Please ask your new question about DW2 as a reply to this thread - this'll make it easier for Erik and to put together a comprehensive FAQ for everyone! Keep it to the questions for the developer as much as possible - if you want to discuss a subject in more detail, prefer adding to a specific thread on the subject or start a new one.
The answer to your question might also be in the official list of changes from DW1 or on the Steam page (e.g. Will there be space monsters?).
You can also get more information on the game by watching DasTactic's analyses of the "reveal" footage.
A great deal of the information below was gathered by Galaxy227 and has been merged into this post.
Some questions have been rephrased to make them shorter. Answers are all by either Erik Rutins or Elliot Gibbs.
[GETTING THE GAME]
Will there be early access?
--> We have no plans for early access, just a traditional closed beta which will go until we're happy with the state of the game and ready to release.
Can we still purchase directly from matrix or is purchase through Steam advised?
--> Since you asked, we'd actually prefer if you purchase through us - you'll still get a free Steam key for any purchase on the Matrix or Slitherine store, but more of the game price will go directly to us (and Elliot) rather than to a third party.
I will be purchasing thru Matrix but will distribution be handled by both or can i get the game still via my games section in Matrix or is down load thru Steam required?
--> By both - it's totally up to you. You'll have a fully registered copy here so you can re-download from us and you'll also have a Steam key so you can add it to your Steam library and download it there.
Do I still get a disk when I buy through Matrix?
--> Yes, there will be an option for a physical copy.
[BETA]
Where can we apply for the Beta?
--> See this thread.
--> Just a short announcement to say that beta recruitment is now closed. There will be a new beta recruitment posted later for a final pre-release test, but we'll be recruiting our initial beta waves from the very large pool of applications we've already received.
Is there a team lead, who it will be, and how the effort is managed and directed in terms of goals and efforts?
--> Well, if you apply and get into the beta, this will all be clear. In general terms, the process varies a bit based on the game and the size of the overall beta team. A NDA is required for all testers to ensure confidentiality until release. There are times when additional test coordinators are needed if the team is large enough that the volume of feedback to sift through becomes otherwise overwhelming. We use issue reporting and tracking systems as well as some automated logging to help us keep track of what's reported.
[UI]
Will the UI be improved?
--> We've been getting a lot of positive comments on it, but it's clear that for a few the choice of colors is not their favorite. The grey used in parts is mainly just there as a relatively subtle neutral color that can keep the UI from being too much in your face when you don't want to pay attention to it, but perhaps we can do that with a different color. We'll be listening to feedback like this throughout beta and seeing what we can do.
Have you considered putting some elements in the hands of the users? Every single UI preference that you can put in a settings menu for the user to choose their own preference, is one less problem for you and one more happy customer.
--> Yes, one of the things we've agreed to do as a result of the feedback so far is to allow users some customization of the color/tint choices for the UI.
If I wanted to play the game enjoying the full view of the ships and planets without the icons the further I zoom out, is that possible?
--> You're asking if you can turn the UI off when you want to for more cinematic views? Yes, we're planning to add in a key for that.
Will the text be scalable ingame?
--> The fonts and text are _much_ more readable for me than in DW1 and the game and interface scale with your resolution.
[GRAPHICS / CAMERA / MODELS]
Will there still be visible damage on ships?
--> Yes, there's visible damage to ships as well.
Will resort bases and defense bases eventually get their own graphic? Or will the resorts just share the research model and the defense bases share with small stations
--> Not for this release, but quite possibly in the future. Also, nothing is preventing modders from differentiating them with unique models even in this release.
Worth noting that currently, Defensive Bases and Small Space Ports share a model. Research, Resort and Monitoring Stations share a model. This is not hard-coded, just what our model sets were designed for at release. Starfighter and various Drone models are not shown here.
Am I crazy or do the planets no longer orbit their stars?
--> I explained this a bit in the stream Q&A, but bottom line is that the the planets still rotate, but they no longer have animated orbits.
Partly this is due to the change in scale, the rest comes down to the difference between having things look ok in 2D where ships and stations moved through each other all the time vs. nice 3D where they need to avoid colliding, enter hangars and docking bays properly, exit construction yards, etc.
Having the orbits match up with the more realistic scale would have meant they would be slow enough that you likely wouldn't notice the movement easily, while at the same time any movement would create a lot more challenges for us in terms of the new 3D mechanism for docking of ships in spaceports and near planets and collision avoidance. We decided ultimately that it wasn't worth adding extremely slow orbits to create a huge amount of extra bugs and work to account for that when we could spend that limited time better elsewhere on other more noticeable features. It's not impossible that orbits may return at some future date, but it's not in the plans right now.
Can the orbiting of planets be modded?
--> No, this would be too core to the game in too many ways. It's something really only Elliot could do as far as getting it connected code-wise in all the right places.
Can we tilt the camera to a directly overhead view, instead of an oblique angle?
--> Yes, an overhead view similar to DW1 will be possible.
Can you see ships / planets on the map from any angle?
--> Yes, except not fully "under".
Will we be able to mod in additional filters/Map overlays like the resource ones?
--> The map overlays are a bit underdeveloped right now, that's actually one of the main areas I expect we'll expand during beta based on player feedback. Modding them in does not seem likely, but we'll try to make sure we have the bases covered before release, so to speak.
[GAMEPLAY]
[GENERAL]
Is there support for auto-pause? Especially in term of enemy, new resource, new colonize-able body, and essentially any important event that would alter an empires efforts requiring immediate attention such as war declaration, new faction encounter, etc ...?
--> Auto-pause is built into key events/messages (not very many) and whenever you go into a full screen view to do something (those are very few in DW2). Other than that, we leave the decision on when to pause up to you.
What is the maximum time compression in the game? Still 4 times?
--> Yes and 4x works fine, though the final time compression settings are still being discussed and final optimization and beta testing will really determine where we end up. It's possible we may add more on the high and low end depending on how all that goes.
Can you fully control a civilian ship, if you reeeaaally want this load of nekros stone to be delivered NOW with the utmost urgency? i.e. can you order a civilian ship to load a certain cargo then deliver it presto to another planet? You hinted more control on civilian ships, to which extent, to sum up?
--> No, they still control themselves, but the AI running them is significantly more intelligent and you have much easier and more specific access to the desired stockpile levels at each location which they will pay good attention to.
I guess, if the editor has the same capacities as the DW1 one, that you could start a game as the human and redo the solar system from zero before playing for real?
--> Yes, pretty much.
Is it possible to have manufactured resources? Like the afore mentioned fusion cells that would derive from the extraction of a natural resource?
--> The manufacturing on planets themselves is somewhat abstracted. Colonies require both construction resources and luxury resources for maximum growth and development. Some facilities, research projects and all construction requires resources. Adding an extra layer of "refined" resources that exist in effect as a translation of a lower level was something we did consider way back but decided would not add enough for the extra work in both AI and UI that it would take.
As far as whether it's possible for modding, I'm not entirely sure. Looking at what you can do with resources and facilities, I don't see any way right now to "process" a resource, but maybe someone else is more creative in figuring something out.
I do see how this could be cool and within the context of a more realistic modded version of DW2 it would certainly fit right in. If not possible in the release, it's certainly something we could consider for future modding support.
Is the game more about colonizing asap, as much as possible, in a kind of land-grab or are some disincentives present to not occupy as fast as possible planets around you? I'm thinking of a significant monetary cost for a new colony for example?
--> DW2 is much less about rushing colonization than in DW1 and choosing better worlds definitely helps. Colonization techs are more expensive, Colonization components for Colony ships are much larger and more expensive and new colonies require significant resource and credits in order to develop and grow, which must be provided from an existing economic base until they can sustain themselves. You can still "rush", but you'll soon reach a point where you can't sustain more colonies until some of them grow to be larger and able to provide for themselves. More colonies may also strain what your private sector can provide in terms of passenger ships for migration, whereas fewer higher quality colonies will get focused migration. As a result, going for only the best most strategic worlds can be an equally good strategy as claiming all the habitable worlds you can find, within what your economy can sustain.
Even though the game is 3d, does the action still all take place in a plane, more or less? I'm assuming and hoping so since I don't feel plotting and moving in full 3d really adds anything except complexity.
--> Yes, the Z axis is really used mainly just to help with temporary collision avoidance as well as adding a better sense of depth and scale and of course much better graphics. The ships and stations themselves are effectively on a plane in that 3D space.
Will there be a relation between war weariness and the actual amount of losses?
--> We haven't spoken much about this because this system is still in development, but there is a new system under the hood for keeping track of how a war is going and there are come effects now between your losses and your war weariness. Time is still a factor with war weariness as well, perhaps the only one that might bring a war to an end if you are on the losing side. However, certain faction/government combinations, such as say a Mortalen Military Dictatorship, have some remarkable bonuses towards reducing war weariness and can fight on much longer without penalties than say a Teekan Mercantile Guild.
What will be the overall gestion of war? In DW1, "war" was just a different state of relations between two empires. It could lead to strange behaviours like an ally of yours agreeing to go to war to defend you against an aggressor, but then quickly negotiating a separate peace with the enemy and dropping out of the war, without any consequences.
--> War is more of a "thing" in DW2, but not to the degree of something like in EUIV. We track a lot more about a lot of things under the hood and war is one of them. That is used to inform both the player and the AI of how a war is going and war weariness. Wars are still in effect 1:1, meaning that your ally may still decide to pursue a separate peace, but it's unlikely unless they either start losing badly (which you can help to prevent) or their war weariness gets very high (which can have lots of bad effects).
In the Bacon Mod, Shipcrews can gain Experience. Are there any Plans to integrate this Mechanic?
--> Not in this release, but allowing ships to gain experience like troops makes sense as something to do in the future. We nearly did that in DW1, but ended up going with Ship Captains instead (which did not make the cut for DW2).
Will we get a Indicator for "enemy ships in that system"? What about a "last I had sensor contact, there were enemies there"?
--> You do get notifications when enemy ships are approaching or attacking. The notifications bring you to the location of that contact, whether it's still there or not (if it left your sensor range).
[GALAXY / MOVEMENT]
Will there be a wormhole/stargate function in DW2 to moves ships or fleets through?
--> Nope. Not in this release anyway.
Could we add wormholes/stargates via modding?
--> No, adding an entirely new way of moving around the galaxy would be beyond something that I would expect can be modded, though I guess you can never say never given how creative some modders are.
Is there still free movement in the galaxy?
--> Yes, there's still free movement, but with hyperdrives having a maximum "jump range" for a single jump now, for longer distances and given some of the geography they may need to use hops through multiple systems to get to the end destination. The entire galaxy including all the space between systems is still available and in fact some of the more unusual locations may be found off the beaten path.
That's typically not the shortest route, but certainly if you have the jump range and fuel to do it, it should be possible. If the enemy doesn't have appropriate long range sensors to detect your deep space route and prepare a defense, they might be quite surprised! That's ok and intentional. There will be some cases where the geography makes certain locations very strategic for the positioning of stations, sensors and refueling points, but in other cases many approaches may be viable. It will vary with each galaxy and situation and the techs you have.
Can you attack behind enemy lines via hyperjump?
--> That's typically not the shortest route, but certainly if you have the jump range and fuel to do it, it should be possible. If the enemy doesn't have appropriate long range sensors to detect your deep space route and prepare a defense, they might be quite surprised! That's ok and intentional. There will be some cases where the geography makes certain locations very strategic for the positioning of stations, sensors and refueling points, but in other cases many approaches may be viable. It will vary with each galaxy and situation and the techs you have.
Will it be possible in DW2 to intercept an enemy fleet with hyperdeny devices in the middle of no where meaning between two systems? Or, will space combat always happen in a system?
--> Hm, haven't actually tried that yet, but I'll let you know once I do.
I remember in DWU someone modded a gravity well so that you needed to reach the edge of the star system to initiate hyperjump. Can this still be possible?
--> There is still a gravity well facility in the game. The ability to influence hyperjumps comes down to two factors, HyperDeny and HyperStop. HyperDeny prevents jumping out within its range. HyperStop prevents jumping in or out. Each has a definable strength and range. Hyperdrives in DW2 now also have a certain level of HyperDeny "Insulation" so that sufficiently higher tech hyperdrives can overcome some lower tech level of HyperDeny.
To add [a gravity well] to a star would require a code change. By default, I don't think we'd want the entire system to be a gravity well for a variety of reasons, but I'm sure some folks would enjoy that gameplay. If there's a desire for that we can look at adding it in as a game option.
I'm curious about 'Terrains' and your mention it is not the fastest way to go deep space in opposition to jump from planets to planets. Does it mean deep space is a terrain with a penalty to FTL speed?
--> No, space in and of itself does not have any penalties, but the original question had to do with systems near a choke point created by nebulas. I pointed out that perhaps the most direct route is to hop through the systems, but you could go around, even through the nebulas if you wish, but there would be a cost in additional travel time and potentially even damage to your ships in some nebulas.
With ships taking multiple jumps, is that even as they receive the high tier warp drives? Can they skip some systems as their range increases or do they still warp system to system even if, for arguments sake, a ship has the range to warp from one end of the galaxy to the other.
--> Yes, better hyperdrive technology increases maximum jump range significantly.
What differs a ship from jumping the entire way to a destination rather than making multiple short jumps?
--> When you reach the maximum distance for a jump, you have to stop and wait for your hyperdrives to cool down and recharge. You then go through a new hyperjump initiation and continue your journey. In effect, it both delays you and makes you briefly vulnerable in "realspace" for an interception or have to deal with any threats in the system if you stopped there vs. in deep space. On the plus side, you could also refuel between jumps if you have a fuel source nearby, but typically you will not need to do so on the way to a destination within 50% of your maximum travel distance. If your only stopping point is in a bad nebula, for example, you could also possibly take some damage while recharging.
Maybe you could give us a early "proto Warpdrive"? One that allows FTL or near FTL travel - but only within a system.
--> We did, it's called the Skip Drive and you can/should get it quite quickly in base DW2. :-)
Is the Galaxy Map 2D or 3D?
--> It's 3D in terms of the graphics, but effectively on a 2D plane in that you're not traveling up and down between star systems.
With the Skip Drive being a much earlier technology, do you plan to expand on the content/descisions to do when all you got is the skip drive? Splitting the game into Pre-FTL, Skip Drive, Proper Interstellar FTL?
--> The current evolution by default is a very brief sub-light period (you find enough info to build the skip drive quickly in your ancestral ruins on your homeworld, once you can understand the tech), then a longer skip drive period exploring just your own system, then a warp bubble drive period where you can go to the nearest systems, perhaps 4-5 more, then the full on hyperdrive era with the Gerax Hyperdrive, at which point much of the galaxy opens up, especially as you colonize and expand refueling points. The Gerax Hyperdrive era usually brings the "early game" to an end as it leads to encounters with other major empires, beginning what I'd call the mid-game where you're focusing less on establishing your interstellar civilization and more on competing with other interstellar civilizations.
In DW1 we had to find the idea for Warpdrive theory in Ruins. Before that, we could not even start research. And given the limitation to STL travel, it could take consider able time for the Exploration ships to actually get to the ruins, wich could break a empires ability to go for the Stars. Will that still be the case? Will we only need this unlock to progress past skip drive?
--> By default, you now get a boost towards Skip Drive on your homeworld ruins, speeding up that initial process.
Is it possible to hide Ships from enemy Radars behind large Celestial Objects?(f.E Gas Giant - like in the upcoming 4X Game Falling Frontier)
--> I don't know anything about Falling Frontier. With that said, what you describe in terms of possibly not seeing a ship within the same solar system is mainly an early game thing. Once your sensors get a bit better, you will pretty much see everything within a system as in DW1 and the visibility question becomes more about how far outside your system you can see and where there are gaps in your long-range sensor coverage, or how good it is at identifying what it sees.
A lot of work went into making this less of a binary "you see it and know everything about it" vs. "you see and know nothing" to adding more levels of knowledge. You could know that something is there, or know that it's there and who it belongs to, or even its role, or even be able to see its exact design, etc. The interaction of other components such as stealth components, trace jammers, etc. play into this and the power of sensors to detect may vary from their power to unmask empire or role.
Good long range sensors can also give you some information on even previously unexplored systems within their range. Larger ships and stations are also easier to detect than smaller ones.
Will Ships take damage when they are to close to a Star?
--> I haven't directly tried to fly a ship into a star, but I'm pretty sure the ships will not accept that order and thus not take damage.
Given that stops will actually mater in DW2, is there a way to declare specific Systems "off limits" for automatic pathfinding?
--> The automatic system for avoiding threats is much better, but this type of manual declaration of a system as off-limits is something I'd like to add, if not in this release then in the future.
[BUILDING / FLEET AND TROOP MANAGEMENT]
Is Terraforming still in the game and, if so, is the planetary percentage scale still in place. Can we Terraform planets into our races preferred type or does it stay the same type and only heal the percentage as in DWU. If I remember right, planets had a hard cap I think? Like you couldnt terraform all the planets up to 100% quality if im remembering that right.
--> Yes, they are in the game and they are more useful. They can actually increase planet quality now. You cannot stack more than one on a given planet, but they are upgradeable (as are some other facilities). / Terraforming and terraforming facilities are still being balanced. We are aiming for allowing terraforming to switch planet types if you terraform enough, but it's possible that actually "upgrading" planets may not make it into the initial release. If not, it will be in an expansion.
Do planets have planetary shields available as a building to help defend against bombardment? If the building is available, can you see a gfx projected around the planet to know at a glance whether a planet is protected or not?
--> Yes, and don't recall off the top of my head.
Is it also still possible to right-click and choose where, in relation to the celestial body, a station is built?
--> Yes, absolutely.
Is there going to be more involved planet management? Nothing super involved but being able to min/max a planet with an expanded list of structures would be nice.
--> The tech tree is bigger and there are more facility choices as well. The largest change is in more defensive facilities and government control/anti-corruption facilities, but I believe in total there are about 2.5x the facilities we had in DW1 and facilities can now have multiple levels for upgradeability as well.
Facility building can also be automated or manually controlled.
How many planetary facilities will there be?
--> Yes, I believe we have something like 2.5x the planetary facilities as in DW1. The choice of defense facilities and government/anti-corruption facilities in particular have been expanded. Also, facilities can be upgraded through multiple levels. The planet-based Ion Cannon is still one of the possible defense facilities, if you research down the Ion weapons tree.
Can we still start building assets without having the full resources?
--> That's not an option at this point, you need all the resources. When looking at DW1, allowing that caused frankly more issues, AI corner cases and just plain bugs than it was worth, which drove our decision to require resources as well as credits at construction start now. It also confused the heck out of many new players who would order construction on something and wonder why it was never finishing as they didn't understand that more resources needed to get there and were for whatever reason being prevented from doing so. We had issue saves from confused customers in Universe that had unbelievable numbers of unfinished stations.
We also improved the resource handling and transit logic and the levers for influencing it from DW1, as well as the transparency to the player of resource shortages, what's being mined and moved, etc. The combination makes the entire private sector and the resource economy much more understandable IMHO and by release we should have any remaining bugs found and worked out for an overall much better functioning and more understandable private economy compared to DW1.
Worth noting that after stations (for example) are built, if they are damaged then construction ships bringing resources and construction yards over to fix them is still a requirement (though once you get to repair bots that's less necessary).
Is there an option to auto-reinforce fleets? For example, create a fleet of 5 ships and set to defend a system. The fleet loses 3 ships. Can the construction AI now build 3 replacement ships at nearby/suitable shipyards and auto-assign them to the fleet?
--> Yes, that's how it works. Assuming you have your automation settings enabled that way, the fleets will auto-top-up with ships to compensate for losses. You can also build/form new fleets using fleet templates, i.e. instead of building the ships individually. So you would select the fleet template and click a button to either build a new fleet based on the template, or form the fleet from existing ships.
Of course if you wish you can still form fleets the old way, a ship at a time.
In DW:U if I set the special forces recruitment to high and infantry to low in the policy settings, the AI will still build more infantry than special forces and that is quite problematic. Does automation recruitment work as intended in DW:2?
--> The AI should respect those settings and the army templates in DW2.
Is it possible, either through the game UI or through modding, to create a ship that carries a different ratio (such as all-fighters or all-bombers)?
--> By default, they get an even split. The UI allows you to upgrade, launch and retrieve your fighters and bombers, but not change the distribution. You can certainly mod in unique fighter-only or bomber-only bays and if beta feedback suggests that this is desirable, we may add them in as well or perhaps add a policy option to adjust the ratio.
Are resources less abundant compared to DW1?
--> Resource abundance is decreased from DW1, mining rates are decreased, some resources (even construction resources) are more scarce than others, etc. Typically, the more scarce resources are needed for the more advanced technologies.
As I understand it, prior to the spaceport being built the Colony can act as ship producer - albeit slower and only 1 Project at a time. Will they become fully interchangeable once the Spaceport is there, meaning that the space port can do stuff like creation and Upgrades of Colony/Construction ships? Having the one Yard Bottleneck - in particular with a Colonyship needing years to build - was always a big issue with DW1.
--> Colonies can build pretty much everything, but slower and with more cost. Once you build a spaceport, the AI is much better in DW2 at balancing the production load so that your overall production delays at all potential sites should be about even. I'll show this a bit more in future reveals. You can still of course manually queue production wherever you like.
Colony ships are huge endeavours, but the overall production queueing/balancing system is significantly better than in DW1 and we'll continue making the AI smarter in every area we can throughout beta.
Will there still be construction advisors and changes in how they behave?
--> Yes, there are still construction advisors. You can adjust your policy settings in-game to tell them what you want prioritized and can even tell them that you do not want any escorts or frigates, for example, or set the priority of more exploration ships to very low. With that said, our hope is that by release, the advisors will be more intelligent than in DW1 (they already are in many cases, still need more work in others).
Defining your fleet templates for defense, attack and invasion will also help guide construction.
[CHARACTERS / ECONOMY / DIPLOMACY]
How will trade work?
--> First, you don't automatically start with some free trade. You have to get treaties to enable trade, starting with Restricted, then Limited and finally Free Trade. The level affects both what resources your trade partner is willing to trade/sell to you and also what tariffs are charged. With Free Trade, all resources are available to each partner as if it were their own economy and no tariffs are charged.
Will there be tourism as in DW1?
--> There are resort bases and tourism, they just share a model with the research station.
Is it too early to ask a question about characters? Will there be some variety of appearances for each race's characters with clothing/faces, similar to how Stellaris generates their leaders?
--> We don't have the type of character art customization that I believe you're describing, at least at release, but there is variation for each character role within a faction. For example, Leaders, Ambassadors, Scientists, Spies, Admirals, Generals each look different. There are also a variety of animations for Leaders who get to engage in Diplomacy.
Will the ties between population growth and taxes be the same as in DW1?
--> We very much recognized that some "levers" were stronger than they should be economically. We've spent a good bit of time re-balancing population growth, happiness, taxes and income including the effects of very low and very high taxes. I believe you'll find this significantly improved over DW1. We have more in mind to do here as well, mainly with regard to the new bonus funding, though all of that many not get into the initial release.
Will building scale become more costly in the mid/late game compared to DW1?
--> We re-balanced this as well. Ships and stations are more significant investments now compared to DW1 and the bigger ones are more expensive relatively than they were previously. You need a good economy to support multiple large fleets. Reactors, engines, hyperdrives and a few other components are also larger than in DW1 and make the energy vs. size calculation a bit different. It's still quite possible to build a ship with abundant energy and to research some very nice reactors, but the cost put a bunch of them in a ship in terms of size used is greater.
Could we have a feature where Ambassadors can be sent on a mission towards neutral Independent planets to convince them to join us?
--> Ambassadors in DW2 can help with Empires, Independents and Pirate Factions. In fact, _not_ having an ambassador assigned to a faction can also cause possible diplomatic penalties.
What are your plans regarding space creatures?
--> I'm sure we'll add more creatures as we go on through the expansions. We had quite a few creature ideas we couldn't fit into this release as well. Creatures can already grow in size over their lifetimes and they can already reproduce. In some cases, they hang out mostly alone, others are pretty much always in groups. You could potentially run into more than one creature type as well as pirates in the same system. That type of emergent interplay is one of the things we try to aim for, we'll see if we get there.
Can we build Stations on larger Asteroids instead of just mining them with Ships?
--> Mining stations now have an asteroid mining range. You build a mining station, it will start mining all asteroids within its range. While individual asteroids usually have low resource abundance, a few well-situated mining stations can make a good asteroid field quite valuable.
Can we order Spies to abduct Scientists from other Empires to hinder their Research progress? (abducting enemy characters was possible in Star Wars Rebellion)
--> Not yet, though this area is still a bit in development. You can assassinate them though. :-)
Will there be cooldowns on diplomatic actions?
--> The improved diplomatic system does have enforced cooldowns to avoid exactly the type of issue you were referring to in DW1 and I hope that as we keep testing it during beta, we'll iron out any remaining exploits or balance issues.
Will the Civil economy be able to use their own funds/construction ships to add to the space mining infrastructure?
--> Yes, mining stations are now build using private funds. The state effectively grants the license for a mining location, the private sector pays for the construction and maintenance.
Can I build or charter a freighter for specific deliveries?
--> No, but you can set your resource priorities at that location which will act to pull more Caslon there through the private sector system. As far as smuggling and such, independent freighters will also respond to demand, but a more full-featured smuggling system is something for an expansion.
What about a Convoy System? Q-Ships(Armed transports)?
--> If you have enough military ships, per your policy settings some will not be in fleets. Those will generally if automated be assigned to protect mining stations, patrol systems and escort important shipments. The freighters do not "convoy up" but I could see that being an interesting idea to explore in the future when there are threats or war to consider if an enemy is causing significant losses to the private sector.
[SPACE BATTLES]
How will the target tracking work?
--> It is true that we have more resolution on the targeting/tracking side too now though and point defense weapons are much better at engaging those fast moving targets like starfighters. Speed does also affect targeting to a degree, as do countermeasures, which you can get both from electronic countermeasures as well as some boosts from stealth tech or better maneuvering thrusters. Trying to hit a starfighter with a Pulse Torpedo or a Shatterforce Beam is highly unlikely, but those work great on bigger targets like ships and stations (being stationary) are the easiest of all to actually hit.
Can you disable specific ship components?
--> You can't target a specific part of the ship, but there are disabling weapons (Ion Weapons) in the game that now have varying profiles as far as what types of components they are more likely to disable. You can use these on your designs to help disable shields or engines, then rely on the rest of your weapons to do more damage, or research Ship Boarding and use boarding pods and tractor beams to hold a ship close, board it and take it over. Once you take it over, you can use it or send it to a spaceport for disassembly which can give you research boosts or even unlock techs that (if you're playing with variable/blind research by default) you might not have previously had access to, depending on what's in the ship.
--> Worth noting that the damage model is also significantly better than in DW1. If you hit with a very damaging shot, you could damage multiple components as well as hull. In other words, some damage can "carry over" further into the ship if it has enough to keep going. Heavy weapons also generally consume more power, take more space and fire more slowly though.
Is the combat mechanic going to change from fleet blobs blobbing it up or into a more tactical type battle to maximize the use of all the shiny new techs so positioning and ship loadout count?
--> So far, I think we've succeeded in making combat more interesting and tactical vs. DW1. Obviously having a stronger fleet with the better admiral will always matter a great deal, but there are many other choices involved along the way and I've certainly been able to influence combats I'm watching by slowing things down and making some key tactical choices as well with manually controlled ships.
How will the new fleet tactical settings work?
--> There are a ton of settings both at the ship design, individual ship and fleet level that can change the behavior. We had them both set pretty aggressively to make sure we got a bit of a furball of a battle, but with different settings the Ackdarians would have tried to maintain range (and eventually failed as the Mortalen were faster in this case) but they would have tried. Long range combined with faster speed can be a potent combination.
How does the AI deal with firing arcs?
--> The tactical AI has been taught to understand fire arcs, the firepower within a given arc and range and to consider all that in both how it maneuvers its ship and what it targets.
While in Combat, will it be possible to ram enemy Ships?
--> Not at present. As long as you have assault pods, you can board enemy ships though, to damage or capture them, as in DW1.
[GROUND COMBAT AND BOARDING]
How to defend against boarding?
--> Troops I believe are either on a planet or a troop transport, rather than on bases, but there are other components you can now add to stations (Star Marine Barracks) as well as other improvements to ship and station boarding defenses that let you harden your designs significantly more against boarding at the cost of space for other components.
Ground combat is the same?
--> It's the same, except that:
1. We moved the orbital defense phase to the map so you see the planetary defenses shooting the landing pods in space as they approach the planet.
2. We added an entirely new troop type (Titans)
3. We added more data to each troop type to better define their interactions with each other beyond just strength.
4. We added more techs to the ground combat tree.
What do we know about Titans?
--> Titans can mean different things for different factions. They are a later game troop type and certainly expand the possible interactions and strategies for ground combat.
Will DW2 have military/army only drag? or an option to toggle that?
--> Since the armies are not on the "map" you don't drag to select them. However, there is no longer just the concept of a particular troop unit. You now have army templates and you can assign an entire army to a fleet or planet, for example, instead of having to move individual troops there.
Are you considering adding Ground Troops Techs in future Expansions? (f.E Better Stormrifles for Infantry or better Armor for Tank Divisions)
--> I suppose it's possible, though there's already a tech tree for improving the various ground combat capabilities. We want to see how the changes we already made to ground combat shake out during beta and post-release before deciding on any future changes.
Can we rob Cargo from Freighters that belongs to Empires we are at War with, rather then just destroying them?
--> You can board them and take them as well as their cargo. You can also raid for resources and money.
[COLONY MANAGEMENT]
Could the new game engine allow for possible planetside developments in the future, either officially or through modding? I'm thinking viewing and interacting with colonies that are dynamic - see them grow and develop, position key buildings and garrisons, etc?
--> Right now, your planetary interactions are as follows, most all of these can be manually controlled or automated and are connected up to other parts of the game in different ways:
- Ensure a good supply of construction and luxury resources for good development and happiness
- Adjust tax rate to optimize income and happiness
- Check/manage corruption
- Adjust resource stockpile demands
- Set population policies
- Explore to maximum exploration level to find any hidden items/bonuses
- Place any artifacts for best results
- Recruit/manage troops
- Build/upgrade/manage facilities (these can affect almost everything from defense to quality to corruption, etc. The new administration facilities are an important corruption management and empire expansion tool)
- Built/retrofit ships and stations (though building on planets while sometimes necessary is more expensive and slower than building at spaceports)
Visually, as a colony grows in population and development, you also see more evidence of an advanced society (especially on the dark side where you can see the lights of your civilization).
As far as what you seem to be asking about, basically a "mini-game" where you have a planetary map and you're building on it, that's not something we plan to do at this time, but it's possible that could be done in the future if it's a playstyle we see requested by many. You'd have to make it easily automatable as I'm sure for many others it would also be too much to manage in the scope of a galactic empire.
Will planets in Distant Worlds 2 have any special planetary characteristics beyond quality? I find that it gives planets a bit more character in Stellaris (where they are called anomalies). Maybe the gravity is funky, which gives bonuses and maluses to production, or the plant life has come special qualities, which affects the population living there. Maybe there are underground caves, which could allow for colonization of otherwise barren planets.
--> Yes, there are a number of bonuses like that, depending on the planet or star type. These have textual flavor descriptions similar to what you describe. These are often used for the various type of research bonuses or scenery bonuses.
Let's say 3 or more races are invading an owned planet (or a neutral one) at the same time, how would you go about determining the winner? For example, in DW:U if the Zenox were invading a neutral planet and I would drop troops into the battle that the Zenox were winning, then I would win the planet and that's unfair and fun breaking. Is there a way to have more races battle for a single planet?
--> I recall this being a pretty complex issue to solve back when we were working on DW1 and I don't recall what our final resolution was off the top of my head, but I'm sure we haven't run into that situation again in DW2 so far. Guessing the current logic is identical to DW1, but for testing those kinds of corner cases the beta will be quite helpful.
Is there a possibility that some Colonies can revolt against Player/AI because of Government Type? (f.E Colony X wants to brake off from Mortalen Dictatorship because they want Democracy.)
--> Don't think so at present. We added an assimilation resistance to various factions in DW2 and this has a direct role to play in how happy a conquered colony will be and how long it will take for it to be more accepting of its new owner. At the same time, there are biases between the various species which can lead to some being happier than others within a particular empire, especially if your empire is trying to exterminate or enslave them otherwise. Espionage also is a significant external catalyst for revolts and rebellions. Finally, your own policy choices and how they effect a given colony's happiness as well as the updated corruption system and its interaction with the reach of government through administration facilities have a lot to do with it as well.
[RESEARCH]
How big will the tech tree be?
--> It's bigger than in DW1, but not twice as big. There are more "border" technologies that include parts of two other trees and for the weapon trees each is significantly more self-sufficient than in DW1 as well. You are not forced to research many different weapons if you prefer to focus in one weapon technology area, for example. Most weapon trees, with a few specialized exceptions, can cover all your needs.
It's really an expanded and combined DW1 tree with more options and a huge amount of extra potential and fallback paths to allow for the variable paths/blind playstyle (which is now the default) for those that are up for it.
I noticed in galaxy creation that there was no option to choose your own research speed as in DW1. Will this be an option at release?
--> Yes, actually it's already in the game. If you take another look you should see the research speed settings in that video. I should also note that the goal is for the "normal" speed to be slower than in DW1, especially at higher tech levels.
With tech being condensed into one tech tree, does this mean we will only research one tech at a time instead of three at a time like in DW1, and research is essentially 66% slower as a result? Also does this mean that the research lab component from DW1 is no longer split into military research lab, economic, etc?
--> A lot has changed with research. You have one big tech tree, but it has all the stuff that was in DW1 and more. In addition, it can be played in a way that the paths are not always the same and that you don't see the entire tech tree from the start. You may not even get all the projects each time, though of course what you can't research, you could always try to trade for, steal through espionage or reverse engineer through salvage or exploration. [This could happen with the help of a scout ship], or since destroyed ships leave behind salvage now, that can also help, or capturing an enemy ship with a tech you don't have and disassembling it. Yes, you can even get otherwise faction-exclusive techs this way.
In addition, your ability to research multiple concurrent projects still exists, but you only get access to more concurrency as you expand your research stations and capacity.
There is a single research lab component now. However, there are also research bonuses across more categories and those bonuses can also allow you to overcome threshholds that lead to higher level techs, which makes your research locations more strategically important not only for research speed but for actually accessing higher tech levels at all. Finding the right research locations and exploiting and defending them is more important.
In addition, there are initiation costs in credits and resources for each project, related to the type of tech being researched, that make it more costly to try to "beeline" up the tree (assuming you have the necessary threshhold bonuses to unlock the higher techs).
How many racial techs exist on average per race?
--> In DW1, it was never really more than 1 per faction. In DW2, each faction has one primary exclusive tech with the biggest bonus compared to the base techs and two secondary exclusive techs.
[ASSETS]
Do mining stations also have upgrades to their hulls? So they can have some limited defenses in terms of shields, weapon hardpoints and such.
--> They have two hulls by default, one smaller and a larger higher tech hull. The larger hull definitely allows them to maximize their defenses better if they wish but they're nowhere near as strong as the spaceport.
In DWU, the different upgrades to engines would change the exhaust color so you could see at a glance what level of engines a ship was using. Is this still present in DW2 and do shields, now that shields when hit have a color, also have color differences?
--> I believe so, but actually haven't checked on this lately as we've had the engine and shield effects in for quite a while.
Are there massive construction projects in the game or possible for a future DLC? Things like a massive class ship above the Battleships or shipyard rings around planets that increase ship construction speed and have a lot of construction slots but take massive resource investment.
--> The biggest ships and stations are pretty darn big, but there are no "mega-projects" you can research and build at release, though there is one that still exists.
What will be the limit on ship number?
--> There are no hard limits on how many ships you can build or use in any one battle. The practical limits on this are based on your in-game economy and how many ships it can support as well as how many resources those ships require. Both of these are moddable if you want to play with very inexpensive ships just to get more in a fleet. The real-world limit is what your computer can handle in a single battle with reasonable performance.
[SHIP DESIGN / WEAPONS]
So how far does the weapons hardpoints matter to weapon type?
--> Each weapon component bay has a maximum size and in the default game, we have what we call Light, Medium and Heavy weapons as well as Point Defense Weapons (generally similar in size to Light weapons) and Starfighter-sized weapons (smaller than light, only for Starfighter hulls).
Weapon bays also have a specific position on the ship model and based on that, an arc they can cover for those that fire direct (some like missiles and torpedoes, seeking weapons basically, don't require a direct line of sight and can fire at targets out of arc).
Every bay can generally fit a Light, Medium or Point Defense weapon on the default hulls, but some bays are larger and can also fit Heavy weapons. Medium weapons are mainly when you have extra space to add in more firepower or want to maximize your firepower in a particular arc. Heavy weapons generally shoot farther, hit harder and are much bigger but can be worth their weight when it comes to cutting through shield, armor and hull resistances.
As an asides, will the hyperdrive component be static or will be of different sizes depending the hull?
--> Hyperdrives in general are significantly larger, as are reactors and engines. A lot of component sizes were reviewed and changed, but hyperdrives do not vary in size based on the hull they are in.
Will the new ship design be restrictive?
--> It's definitely true that you can no longer have, for example, a Frigate larger than a Battleship. However, the changes to ship design and both ship and fleet settings and combat are, in my opinion, well worth it in terms of the end result. You can still have really big ships when you research the bigger hulls later on, which was represented by the size increases in DW1 and now is unlocked through similar hull size increases for the later game roles such as Cruisers, Battleships and Carriers. The component bays are not super-restrictive, but they do add just enough restrictions to make for more design decisions while the hull variants give you more freedom to specialize as you want.
Are there research items we will be needing to research the hulls in particular? or just classes and we would get some sort of general hull patterns? I am a bit unsure about the hull's hp and armor, are those to be inherent? or will we be able to modify? (or create hull variants?) Will we still have a max construct-able size?
--> Yes, the hulls are researchable as construction research projects, but there are multiple variant hulls per role. For example, there are four different frigate hull variants, some variants are more general and well-rounded in terms of component bays, some are more specialized.
Each hull variant both has a maximum size it unlocks for that role and a different set of possible component bays. In most cases, especially for hulls like military ships and stations, you will have more bays than you can really fill within your maximum hull size and what you focus on is up to you.
Each hull has an innate amount of structural "hull size" which can absorb damage directed at the hull. It also has an innate reactive armor value. You can add to a ship's defenses and armor through the various defense components.
Your max constructable size depends on the hulls you have research for a particular role. Some scale up to be quite large, equal or greater than the max size in DW1, others have a more limited scale.
Is each hull roll a separate research project?
--> In some cases this is true, but usually one project provides several variants.
Are there weapon arcs?
--> Yes, there are weapon arcs which are both auto-calculated based on the position of the external weapon mount but can also be defined in the ship hull data.
Wondering if we will be able to have spinal mount weapons in the game? Akin to a MAC cannon from Halo type of thing. If so will we be able to put them on all types of hulls? Or just the bigger ones? And will we be able to to add them to space stations and basically make them a giant floating gun?
--> There are Heavy weapons, which hit much harder and have longer range, though they generally take more size, energy and are slower to shoot. Those can fit on all military hulls and some others. However, we do not have special hulls designed around one big weapon in terms of a true "spinal mount". Putting a single Heavy Weapon on an Escort or a Frigate though often uses much of the space you really have available for weapons due to the size required so conceptually it's similar.
There is one hull with a true "spinal mount" in the game, but it's not one of the researchable ones on the research tree.
You can absolutely make a station that's focused on heavy weapons and it will hit quite hard as stations have heavy-capable weapon bays and a lot of extra space for heavy weapons. Because stations are stationary though and have bonuses to effective range for their weapons, heavy seeking weapons that depend less on fire arc tend to work best on them.
I DWU there was no sense of a projectile being separate from a weapon. A weapon couldn't fire a second projectile until the first one had finished traveling its max distance. So you could not create a weapon that fired slow projectiles quickly, for example. Will DW2 separate the concept of a projectile from the launcher?
--> There's no limitation on that in DW2 as far as I know.
Do hull variants have specifics that guide them through a role, like +10% evasion, +5% speed, etc. ?
--> Yes, most do have some innate bonuses as well reflecting their specialization. Stations for example effectively double the normal weapon ranges.
Any way to give the autodesigner some hints what to do?
--> Changing the design templates and faction preferences (data file editing) is the most powerful way to do this, though you can influence what's build through in-game policies as well. If you're running purely on auto-design, the default design templates and preferences reflect what that faction prefers lore-wise as well as what just makes the most general sense for each role. Mainly by researching better components would you influence the auto-designer to choose those if you're not editing your own template or preferences. Exposing more of these in-game is a good wish list item.
[SPECIES / FACTIONS / LORE]
Erik, can you clarify the idea for the rest of the races? Will they be released as development advances?
--> Each faction is now a pretty big amount of work compared to DW1, between the 3D models, animated characters, story and balancing. I expect we'll be making more factions fully playable with each expansion. The exact expansion schedule is still being discussed beyond the first one.
What choice of flags will we have?
--> The color/flag options are not expanded, but the flags we have are nicer than in DW1 (IMHO).
Can we play as pirates?
--> [No.] Playable pirates were effectively a full year expansion of work for us in DW1 and we just couldn't justify the time with everything else we had to do in the initial release. They're still more fleshed out than the original DW1 pirates pre-Shadows, but they are an early game threat. We expect they'll be made playable again in one of the DW2 expansions.
As the humans, will they have our Solar system or the option to start in our sol system?
--> Well, these aren't exactly "us". In DW lore terms, the ancient humans were more directly connected to Earth and sadly as a result of how the ancient timeline ended you probably wouldn't recognize that solar system in present-day DW. Thus for this release, there likely won't be our system as an option, but if/when we add the more ancient storyline back in, it would make sense to include that then and might make sense in general to add the option to have "defined" rather than procedurally generated home systems as an option. We have some tech that allows for some of that for story purposes already.
Will playing the hive / insectoid species be as challenging as it was in DW1?
--> Let me answer this in two ways. First, the Boskara were the last playable faction added, so they are a bit behind the others in terms of being fully tested at this point. Second, one of the main goals of focusing on seven playable factions is to make sure that each has a fully viable playstyle in terms of the game balance and options and that they can compete well with the other factions. I expect therefore that playing the Boskara in DW2 will be more viable both in a lore-friendly way and in other out of the box ways, but until we finish fully testing them I can't speak in more detail to that yet. We have a lot of testing and balancing still to do, especially with the faction events and faction victory conditions.
I'm wondering who the new threat to the galaxy will be or are you going to rehash the shaktari? Or is all that for a later expansion ala the way you developed the first game?
--> That is definitely a question I will not be answering for a long time. 
What space monsters will there be?
--> I'll be revealing the space creatures at a later date, but there are three of them in DW2. One will be familiar to DW1 players and is (relatively) peaceful but territorial. Another is an ambush predator, but typically only a threat (though a pretty big one) if you enter its habitat. The third is a more general threat and can absolutely come to you.
In addition to this, you have the pirates to deal with and some other new big threats which likely will remain unrevealed in any major way so that you can discover them yourselves after release.
In the video I saw players now have options to buy ships instead of building them. Also, there were options to build and repair independent ships. Does this mean we can now sell ships to the independent empire and make money that way?
--> We've had discussions along these lines in terms of expanding on independents and pirates further in the future, but I don't expect this to be in the initial release.
With that said, in DW1 independents really were just targets to send colony ships to and a pretty simple mechanic. Now they are really a bit more like minor factions in that they can have multiple levels of trade and you need to invest in diplomacy with them to get them to really like you and accept joining your empire. Alternately, you can invade and conquer them in, but they do have some ground defenses, so bring a decent invasion force if you choose to try and keep a garrison there until they are fully assimilated (the rate of assimilation varies by species now).
They can still (if the option is on) potentially grow into empires as well, if they are left to their own devices for long enough.
Do the currently non-playable races appear in the game as other empires or do these races just on independent worlds?
--> No, only as independents. In order to be playable, they'd need much more work to add a full 3D ship/station set and full animated characters. It's certainly possible that modders may decide to make some of these factions playable post-release by doing that, but at release they will only be available as independents.
Will factions use preferred types of firing arcs?
--> There is variation in the design philosophy of weapon placement and weapon arcs among the factions. This is actually another point of differentiation. While you as the player have the ultimate choice of where to put your weapons on a hull if you wish to customize your designs, some factions will be more geared towards all around fire arcs, others more towards head on fire arcs, some even towards more rear-facing arcs.
[MODDING]
What kind of ingame editor will we have?
--> The DW1-style game editor is what will be in the initial release as far as in-game editing tools. Beyond that is more of an expansion subject.
What will represent the moddable content of the game?
--> There is a bit text file of game text and several XML files with various data.
There are 2D pieces of art, some animated 2D art (basically rigged 2D) and then fully 3D stuff. These are all kept in bundles which the game uses. We have it setup with effectively one bundle per faction and then a core content bundle with the stuff that's not faction-specific.
The planets and nebulas and other backgrounds are done procedurally as far as I know. Not sure what we can or will expose there yet.
There is an in-game editor just like in DW1 and every procedurally generated galaxy has a seed value so that you can re-create it if you really liked it.
How to tweak ship hulls?
--> Ship Hulls are basically data templates in a XML file that's easily moddable, but they define the base characteristics about the hull. What size it is, how much component space it has (and each component bay and the bay size and position for external bays), any additional modifiers, etc. All that gets linked into the Research Projects in another XML file to determine how you get access to that ship hull. The ship hull is not the model though. To create a new 3D ship, you will need to use 3D modeling software (the free kind should work fine) and follow the modding guide for this we release. Assuming you can do that and customize a ship hull template to match the model, you can put pretty much any ship you want into the game for your enjoyment.
Is it possible to mod out the new restrictions regarding the hulls?
--> Just to add a point regarding the hulls, I'm certainly in the camp where I think it adds to the game and it was also a part of the fleet and space combat enhancements we made, but I get that some folks may prefer things to be the way they were in DW1. That's actually very easy to change through modding the ship hull data files, so I'm sure if there's demand for that a modder will take it on board. I get that this seems odd coming from DW1, but I can only say that it does work well the new way and once you play it I think you'll enjoy it (and if you don't, it's moddable!).
Will we be able to overhaul mod the game e.g create a full star wars or star trek mod for the game akin to New Horizons or Fallen Republic?
--> Yes, that should be entirely possible.
How moddable is the rendering going to be? Shader code exposed? Are material definitions going to be scriptable, inputs like texture counts flexible, variables like game time exposable etc. globally defined, or are they case by case exposed? Is the render passes for, for instance post processing scriptable?
--> In the initial release, honestly not sure. I'm going to have to bring these questions to Elliot and have a chat, so a response will likely come later once we're ready to talk about modding a bit more. I do expect we'll release a modding guide before release, as we did with Universe and I'm sure some modders will also join the beta to start figuring things out and seeing what they can tinker with.
Is the graphic for ships entering/exiting warp final and are they moddable?
--> Still work in progress. Not sure yet on moddability but I expect it may be moddable.
[EXPANSIONS]
Is DW2 going to follow the same format as before and have regular large feature expansions?
--> Too early to to discuss expansion plans in detail, but I expect a mix of playable faction additions and major expansions, most likely.
Will there be DLCs as well as expansions?
--> Still being discussed. We're definitely still doing full expansions, but I expect that we will also mix in some faction DLCs just to get more of the other factions from DW1 to a fully playable state more quickly for folks whose favorite faction didn't make it into the initial release.
[OTHER]
Will game stats be available to the player?
--> Sorry, we don't have the stats in there yet (we have way more stats behind the scenes that we're tracking with the new engine/design though) but we will before release and will decide on a good place in the interface for them.
Also noticed during the stream that armies have the Nato symbols for representing units, was wondering if they will have unit graphics for release?
--> We decided to go with symbols for the initial release for the best clarity. Will likely add alternate art in the future as an option.
Which engine does DW2 use?
--> It's a significantly customized version of Xenko/Stride.
Will there be a multiplayer?
--> Not in the initial release, but the new engine and design was built with multiplayer in mind. It's possible it will appear in a future expansion.
================================================================================
(original post)
Since the stream I've seen Erik answering questions all over the place, in new and older threads. I've been chasing them like rabbits. Shouldn't we start collecting these answers and gathering them into an FAQ? Would avoid having the same questions coming again. I don't pretend to have the authority to start an FAQ thread and might miss some of them, but perhaps a moderator can start if Erik's busy.
< Message edited by Miletkir -- 6/23/2021 4:21:46 AM >
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