Distant Worlds 2 Formal Announcement

[Jarhead0331]

I only recently got access to this so I'm still learning and exploring. There was a time when the original Distant Worlds was an obsession and one of my all time favorite games. Like it's predecessor, this sequel has all the elements to be a great classic, and it will almost certainly steal an unholy amount of your life before you even know it...but there are a few things I'd like to see improved if possible. 

I dont really want to post piecemeal criticisms because I plan on doing a thorough and detailed review once the retail candidate is out, but most of the other press I've seen since the NDA lifted has been all praise and glowing. I haven't seen anyone else really mention any of the issues with the UI and camera. I personally have not found the map controls intuitive and ordering ships directly for some some reason, at times, seems more difficult than it should. When I want a ship to go to a specific location, sometimes it won't, and I'm not seeing feedback as to why. This game seems to want players to rely more on automation than direct control of spacecraft. With respect to the camera, even though the is supposedly fully 3D, it's not clear to me whether it can be freely rotated. There are about 4 set map views, like top down, high angle, low angle, etc. But for some reason, I am unable to rotate the map on a vertical plane or z-axis.

The graphics are ok, but they aren't going to win any awards. They are definitely behind by a few generations, but with a game of this scale and scope, it is understandable. I overall like the look and scale of ships and planets and these are the focus of the game.

Finally, not thrilled about the scale back on races. There are only a handful compared to what was in the original game. Whether this decision was based on the need to make each race unique and more fleshed out, or if it was seen as an opportunity for future dlc, I do not know. Regardless, the fewer races is very obvious to fans of the original title.

In any event, overall, I am really liking it and once I really learn and understand it, maybe some of my frustrations will fade. I'll try to post more details and impressions as I get them.

Some of the guys around here have had access through the beta program for longer than me. Now that the NDA is lifted maybe they will chime in too.

[Jarhead0331]

...one other thing I wanted to add. I installed it on my old workhorse. A 5th generation i7 with a 1080 and 32GB Ram and the game runs ok, but it does chug at times. I will probably end up installing it on my newer rig.

So, just beware that the game may struggle on older systems.

[Anguille]

Thanks for your comments Jar  :bd:

[bobarossa]

...one other thing I wanted to add. I installed it on my old workhorse. A 5th generation i7 with a 1080 and 32GB Ram and the game runs ok, but it does chug at times. I will probably end up installing it on my newer rig.

So, just beware that the game may struggle on older systems.

Well that doesn't bode well for my 1660 Super then. Hopefully bottleneck was somewhere else than GPU.

Looking at old save files, it looks like I haven't played DW1 since 2014!

[Yskonyn]

I have been a tester for some time now.
It's definitely more Distant Worlds.

I am not sold on the move to 3D. As JH said, the graphics look dated and most of the game is played at some level of zoom. And the 3D models are not visible in that case.
The 'strategic overlay' is much better this time around; the UI has scale settings and therefore make the game's UI much easier on the eyes on high resolutions.
Some clever scaling of the overlay when zooming out further helps with situational awareness.

The automation is still VERY customizable, just like we've grown accustomed to from DW1. Default settings have the game's AI helping you with almost all aspects of play. The advisor will offer sensible things to do and you just have to click yes or no and your empire basically runs itself.
Of course you can also make it a much more hands-on experience, or a hybrid. Whatever you prefer.

The two biggest criticisms of DW1 was its UI (and font size) and combat always ending in a big blob of sprites.
I already wrote that the former has been resolved neatly in DW2. Combat is more of a mixed bag in my experience.
The fleets do try to keep some semblance of formation and fleets can be scripted in various ways to limit them to standoff ranges or close combat. A mix of tactics for different ships is also possible, but I still find that combat is pretty 'blobby'. Better than DW1, but still not very tactical or wargame like as a whole. More akin to the classic RTS way of combat like Command and Conquer and its ilk.

In general its safe to say that if you liked DW1 you will also like DW2. It's an evolution of the series for sure. Not a revolution.

Performance is decent on my humble laptop (i5, 8GB RAM and GTX 1050Ti). The game is CPU bound more than GPU bound, so a modest graphics card will be less of a problem than a slower 'less cores' CPU.

[Jarhead0331]

Performance is decent on my humble laptop (i5, 8GB RAM and GTX 1050Ti). The game is CPU bound more than GPU bound, so a modest graphics card will be less of a problem than a slower 'less cores' CPU.

That is really interesting. Why the heck is it huffing and puffing on my i7-5820K, 3.30GHz with 32 GB Ram?

[Yskonyn]

Don't know man.
I am not talking about huge empire stuff though. Havent got that far yet.
But a few systems worth of units are no prob.

[Jarhead0331]

So one of the technical problems I was having was caused by DPI settings. The game looked surprisingly bad in all resolutions and the UI was at times difficult to decipher, no matter what size I made it...so, I started looking into the DPI settings and would you believe overriding the high scale DPI settings fixed it. I'm shocked that on a modern game being made in this day and age, that is still necessary. I typically only have to do this on games that are decades old. Bizarre.

[Sparhawk]

Like everyone else I've been patiently waiting for this to release. I had to stop playing DW1 a few years back because I just couldn't read the font any longer, even with reading glasses. Regardless it's one of my all time favorites. I'm kind of bummed that the race selection is so limited. I'm sure everyone has their favored race, mine was the Kiadians.

[steve58]

I'm wondering if Slitherine is starting to follow Paradox's lead on releasing a major title with fewer assets so they can put out lots of DLC addons down the road. 

[Yskonyn]

Well to be fair DW 1 received 2 expansions, so I expect DW2 to get one or two as well. Nothing new here.

[steve58]

True, but I was thinking more along the lines of them releasing smaller DLCs of new races, kinda like what they do in the Civilization and Stellaris series.

[Tanaka]

True, but I was thinking more along the lines of them releasing smaller DLCs of new races, kinda like what they do in the Civilization and Stellaris series.

I think I read there will be two DLC's with each finishing out the original DW races with 7 each...

[Grim.Reaper]

Sounds like pre orders might be coming Feb 10...wonder what kind of pricing might come...premium or something in the 40-50 range.

[W8taminute]

Based on everything said here so far I'm chomping at the bit for this one to come out.  Ok I'll add it to my Steam wishlist.