Galaxy227
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Edit: A compilation of all of the questions answered by Erik Rutins after the gameplay reveal stream. I will continue to add answers until/unless there is a better thread for accessing information.
Edit 2: I've decided since Miletkir has compiled his own list of questions & answers, it'd be rather redundant for me to keep this going. Hopefully my list was helpful nonetheless, and should serve to contribute towards Miletkir's thread if he so pleases.
Space Combat:
Q: When I was reading about the new stuff and what was changed from DW1 it said that components do get damaged but not destroyed , does that mean you can no longer cripple ships by taking out their engines so they can't move, taking out weapons so they stop shooting, or take out their shield generators?
A: Yes, you can still knock out entire systems completely. Now you can also damage them (or disable them if you have Ion weapons and Ion damage can now have different strengths across component categories as well). Yes, there's visible damage to ships as well.
Q: 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?
A: 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.
Q: Oh actually have one for the fleet combat. Is it possible to set distance engagement for the ships so that they keep a certain distance from whatever they are engaging? In the fleet battle video, they all just seemed to rush in at each other. With the Ackdarians having superiority at range, would be helpful to set the ships to want to keep their distance, even if its just getting in range and then stopping to allow faster ships to close the gap but let the bigger ships sit at a distance and blast away
A: Yes, 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.
Q: So how far does the weapons hardpoints matter to weapon type? Do you just plop in a weapon and it will use a generic firing port at that spot or will there be functioning turrets with weapon arcs and such?
A: 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.
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.
Q: Will DW2 approach the complexity of eve online weapons? Resistances and weapon types along with ship speed and signature radius make or break a ship build there vs what it might be facing making some weapons super damaging and other more or less ineffective. Also things like a large lasers slower targeting transversal vs moving targets making it less effective vs faster ships.
A: I haven't had time to play Eve, so I can't answer directly. There's certainly more detail and resolution to combat and ship design than in DW1. There probably is not be as much detail as a game that's focused very much on a single ship.
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.
Q: Can we target some specific components of an enemy ship during a battle? For example, can we destroy shields then engines? And, then, can we send a boarding party to capture the ship?
Send it back to your home spaceport? And capture some technology?
A: 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.
Ships/Bases:
Q: During the stream, it was commented that you could no longer directly warp to a star system very far away, even if you had enough fuel. Instead, you needed to have stepping-stone systems along the way, which presumably helps to add a sort of galactic "geography" to the game in the same way that nebulae now do.
However, what does this imply for free movement of ships? In DW, you could send your ship to any arbitrary point in space, it didn't have to be a star system. That also allowed you to do things like build deep space listening posts, etc. Is that still possible, or will ships now be restricted to being in star systems when they aren't in warp?
A: 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.
Q: Has the implementation of different types of hull types restricted a player's freedom pertaining to ship design?
A: 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.
Q: So, just to clarify, you have max jump ranges related to the hyperdrive component tech level, but you can still cover as far as your fuel tank can take you as long as you can jump to some point within that range, most likely star systems but not necesarily either? (so I could jump to deep space and then to deep space and then to my target system?)
A: Correct in all respects. If you leave it to automatic control, it will use star systems as the "hubs" for those hops.
Q: As an asides, will the hyperdrive component be static or will be of different sizes depending the hull? (that is to say a hyperdrive for a cruiser being bigger than an escort's) or you will keep DW1 fixed Hyperdrive sizes?
A: 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.
Q: Just theorycrafting here, but doesn´t this defeat the purpose of bottleneck/chokepoint systems, when you just can jump through deep space and behind the enemy defensive line?
A: 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.
Q: With it be possible to create your own ship hulls in the ship design editor?
A: 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.
Q: Do mining stations also have upgrades to their hulls? So they can have some limited defenses in terms of shields, weapon hardpoints and such.
A: 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.
Q: I do have one question about the ship hulls, these are 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?
A: 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.
Q: Ok last question for now and I have an inkling that you wont answer this one as in depth haha. 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.
A: 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.
Q: What are some other odd quirks about construction?
A: Regarding construction, a couple of things I want to clarify.
The resources at start means that you can't "order" it to be built until you have both the resources and credits available. At that point, the construction ship (or planet) will use those resources to start construction. That does NOT mean the station or ship is somehow then instantly built. You still go through the construction process and as components are finished, they come online. You can still have a partially completed spaceport that has working reactors and docking bays and is handling some trade, or has a few functional weapons, but not all, or where the shields come online partway through a fight, etc.
Q: Can you "force-start" construction like in DW1? (begin construction without the required resources for said construction).
A: 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).
Q: Is it also still possible to right-click and choose where, in relation to the celestial body, a station is built?
A: Yes, absolutely.
Q: There was an issue I had in DWU I was wondering if it was still present in DW2. If I had built a Starbase out in the middle of nowhere, or even over a planet/by a fuel mining station, I couldnt find a way to offload ground troops onto the station for boarding defense. Will that be possible in DW2?
A: 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.
Q: 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?
A: Hm, haven't actually tried that yet, but I'll let you know once I do.
Q: No Tourism + Resort Base? I saw no resort base in there. Does that mean there is no tourism anymore?
A: There are resort bases and tourism, they just share a model with the research station.
Q: Will resort bases and defense bases eventually get their own graphic?
A: 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.
Q: 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? (Btw, a while back I had asked about the visual gfx for shields and the system in place is gorgeous and so pleasing to watch!)
A: 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.
Release/Beta/Purchase Info:
Q: Any chance that we will have an early access?
A: 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.
Q: Can we still purchase directly from matrix or is purchase thru steam advised?
A: 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.
Q: Erik that is exactly why I asked. One last question. 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?
A: 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.
Q: Do I still get a disk when I buy through Matrix?
A: Yes, there will be an option for a physical copy.
Q: Am curious to know how this is all done.
What company constraints, policies, paradigms, etc ..., are involved.
Is there a team lead, who it will be, and how the effort is managed and directed in terms of goals and efforts.
A: 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.
Q: Will the game be available for pre-purchase prior to release? I am not talking about buying a beta or such but rather just saying here is my money up front and get me the key when you officially release?
A: Probably, but I don't expect for a long period of time. We're not doing early access or anything like that, just a closed beta test recruited from the public.
Q: Is DW2 going to follow the same format as before and have regular large feature expansions?
A: To early to to discuss expansion plans in detail, but I expect a mix of playable faction additions and major expansions, most likely.
Modding:
Q: I assume this uses text files for modability?
A: Yes, 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.
Q: Is it possible to mod out the new restrictions regarding the hulls?
A: 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!).
Q: In terms of modding, 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?
A: Yes, that should be entirely possible.
Q: Will there be a dedicated map editor or a more robust map editing function in the game editor?
A: 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.
Q: speaking of modding, are how many weapon slots on ships mod-able?
A: Yes, though they can't really be more than what the model supports.
Miscellaneous:
Q: Erik, can you clarify the idea for the rest of the races? Will they be released as development advances? will they be DLC or will they be unlock-able, Rome TW style :P
A: 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.
Q: Also noticed during the stream that armies have the Nato symbols for representing units, was wondering if they will have unit graphics for release?
A: 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.
Q: Ground combat is the same?
A: 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.
Q: what do we know about the titans in ground combat?
A: 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.
Q: Wait, you can't play as pirate faction anymore?
A: That's correct, 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.
Q: Was also wondering about buildings for planets, has what we can build been expanded at all? Did notice the airforce related building in one of the slides. Im assuming we still have access to things like Ion cannons and such that can be built on the planets surface to fire at orbiting ships?
A: 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.
Q: 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.
A: Terraforming and terraforming facilities are in, but 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.
Q: 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?
A: Yes, and don't recall off the top of my head.
Q: Was also really interested in how trade would work in DW2. Seems we have much more control over where our resources go. Im interested in how trade will work between empires
A: 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.
Q: Not to bother you but what about stats page/ledger and empire/flag colors can you answer those?
A: 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.
The color/flag options are not expanded, but the flags we have are nicer than in DW1 (IMHO).
Q: So, i guess, what i'm asking is if there are improvements, or differences in how one might play such an empire, successfully and competitively, especially ones as hated as the insectoids without addopting a "standard", "meta" playstile.
A: 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.
Q: 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?
A: That is definitely a question I will not be answering for a long time.
Q: Will there be the 'In Game Editor' like in DW1?
A: Yes, DW2 includes an in-game editor like DW1.
Q: Am I crazy or do the planets no longer orbit their stars?
A: 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.
Q: As the humans, will they have our Solar system or the option to start in our sol system?
A: 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.
< Message edited by Galaxy227 -- 1/28/2021 3:24:42 PM >
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DW2 Info Compilation (OBSOLETE) - 
RE: DW2 FAQ - 
So now there are 2 of them. Maybe I should keep mine since there are already replies?
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