Distant Worlds 2 Formal Announcement

[Anguille]

Seems the game is working better on my older Acer Nitro gaming laptop so i may explore it tonight. But now i don't see anything on my newer Acer Nitro 5 with Radeon graphic card.

[W8taminute]

Strange but good to hear you can at least start to explore the game Anguille.  Let us know how the game runs on your older system.

[Zulu1966]

So have been looking at this game - and a few comments about it being Aurora with graphics. And also the wargamers 4x space game.  So things like fuel / supply etc more "realistic" would interest me if thats the case but what are these elements ?

[Jarhead0331]

So have been looking at this game - and a few comments about it being Aurora with graphics. And also the wargamers 4x space game.  So things like fuel / supply etc more "realistic" would interest me if thats the case but what are these elements ?

This is NOT Aurora with graphics.  Not even close. In fact, this game has actually been making me want to play aurora. DW has some of the same core components, but none of them have anything approaching the same depth and complexity. This could be a good or bad thing, depending on one's preference.

[88mmkwk]

I generally don't jump in on new release games as I prefer for the kinks to get worked out first, so I didn't buy DW2 (yet).

But I just noticed on Matrix Games that DW1 Universe is on sale for $3!!!  For that price, I just might have to add it to my collection....

https://www.matrixgames.com/game/distant-worlds-universe

[Sparhawk]

The kinks are definitely worked out in DW1. With 2D graphics and very small font it has its limitations. Obviously one of our favorite games though in its time. I have a hard time playing DW1 now days because even with reading glasses I just can't see. Hmm, maybe stronger glasses? Worth a try for such a good game.

[CJReich46]

Another patch! 1.0.1.8 


https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10151&t=380646


There's a 1.0.1.9 patch that dropped today - no need to download from the site it's in the updater.  Fixing a lot of stuff it seems. I did a run through got "The Ghost Fleet" base event, and the cool part is the ships are styled like the ships in Chris Foss' paintings!  I'll post a screenie when I can.

[Marod]

Am I correct in my assumption that this is essentially Distant world's 3D? Not saying that's a bad thing, quite on the contrary. Always thought it was interesting but couldn't get past the interface. I'm definitely interested in this and I'm going to have some free time in the next few months so the timing is perfect

[Jarhead0331]

Am I correct in my assumption that this is essentially Distant world's 3D? Not saying that's a bad thing, quite on the contrary. Always thought it was interesting but couldn't get past the interface. I'm definitely interested in this and I'm going to have some free time in the next few months so the timing is perfect

Hey Marod...welcome to the forum.

It is really early in my play-through to state with meaningful specificity as to how DW2 differs from DW1 at its core. Conceptually, it is very similar. If you liked DW1 or if it appeals to you, DW2 is worth a close look. I don't find the "3d" element to be that distinguishing as it doesn't feel like true 3d to me. It is more adjustable to various isometric angles, but its not as if you can rotate the camera freely at all angles in the X, Y, Z axes. This is a pretty big disappointment to me.

The UI is also different, and although it takes getting used to, it is very thought out and attempts to display varying contextual degrees of information based upon view and player interactions, so in that regard, it is a very smart UI.

Otherwise, pretty much all the core elements of DW1 are present in DW2 with varying degrees of focus and complexity.  Diplomacy, research, ship design,  leaders, exploration, resource management, fleet  based and ground combat...it is all still here.

I intend to write a very detailed review of DW2 for our website and try to compare it to DW1 where possible. it will be awhile before I can give the review the treatment I feel it deserves though.

[Tripoli]

Apparently, a new update  (1.0.1.9) was released yesterday.  Here are the notes from Matrix:

This build will reset the game's settings. Unfortunately this is required while we continue troubleshooting issues that are preventing some players from being able to play Distant Worlds 2. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Download Link:
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/DistantWorlds2/DistantWorlds2-UpdateComp-v1.0.1.9.zip

Latest Troubleshooting FAQ here:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 6&t=380844


IMPORTANT NOTE: There is now a new startup log in the /data/logs sub-folder of the Distant Worlds 2 installation.

This is also where any crash logs are located. If you are experiencing an issue, please post these logs for us along with the issue report.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a new GameSettingsOverride.txt in the /data sub-folder of the Distant Worlds 2 installation.

The settings here may help some players experiencing a black screen on load issue.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are experiencing performance issues use the key combination Shift + ~ to enable an overlay on the top left which will confirm for us which GPU DW2 is using on your system as well as other performance parameters.

GENERAL NOTES: We hope that the content streaming memory fix and the improved rendering memory management could fix some of the reported crashes and help with performance dropping over time for some players.

Unfortunately we cannot duplicate the black screen, frequent crashing or unusually bad performance issues on our systems, but we are working to continue investigating them and addressing all possible causes through this and future updates.

Changes in the 1.0.1.9 Build:

DISPLAY AND RENDERING
- fixed faulty display resolution detection at game start
- improved resolution of correct display adapter when specific adapter requested
- disabled fixed timestep updates (higher FPS)
- allow toggling on-screen FPS and other rendering data using shift-Tilde (top-left corner of most keyboards), which allows seeing which display adapter is being used

[CJReich46]

Two new updates dropped - use the updater to get them.

So far I managed 6 hours on new patch, new game and no issues that I can tell. Crossing fingers

[bobarossa]

I've had no problems running it.  However it feels like I'm just playing DW1 with a better UI and much slower play (pre warp start takes forever with only 4x max speed).

[Jarhead0331]

I've had no problems running it.  However it feels like I'm just playing DW1 with a better UI and much slower play (pre warp start takes forever with only 4x max speed).

Yes. The pre-warp game is boring as hell. I don't see the point, particularly with only 4x speed.

[bobarossa]

I've had no problems running it.  However it feels like I'm just playing DW1 with a better UI and much slower play (pre warp start takes forever with only 4x max speed).

Yes. The pre-warp game is boring as hell. I don't see the point, particularly with only 4x speed.

Yeah, my next try won't be pre-warp.  But I've decided to start playing DC Ardennes that I got at 2 months ago.  Be back to DW2 after a few more patches.

[Tanaka]

Changes in the 1.0.2.1 build:

CRASH FIXES
- fixed rare crash when rendering empire territory
- fixed rare crash when scrapping advanced ship with tech bonus, but your empire has not yet researched a relevant project
- fixed rare crash when calculating military ship strength
- fixed rare crash when evaluating threats to a ship

RENDERING CRASH HANDLING
- more graceful recovery when texture or vertex buffer creation fails due to display adapter crash, reset, or change in performance mode. This should greatly reduce the number of DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crashes

DIPLOMACY
- improved diplomacy so that relations now more likely to rise to higher levels (top-level treaties) when you work at improving relations with a faction. Remember that you can directly set diplomatic strategy per faction, which will also help improve relations (Befriend, Ally, Close Ally)

FLEETS AND SHIPS
- fixed bug where ships and fleets could sometimes teleport to edge of galaxy when assigned a mission while already jumping
- fleet jump speed coordination now applies to all fleet missions, not just attack missions (ships travel at same jump speed)
- Fuel Tankers no longer use fleet jump speed when part of a fleet

OTHER
- now properly review maximum colony population level as tech improves (colonization modifiers) and planet quality changes (terraforming, etc). This fixes issues with migration missions sometimes not completing
- ensure that player's per-role ship design automation settings are reset between each game (not remembered from previous games)
- Fleet Template screen no longer generates empty fleet when do not have enough money to build
- ensure scroll position in Empire Policy screen is reset to top when open again (previously settings were sometimes not appearing until scrolled up)
- reduced estimated resource demand for fuel so that more accurately aligns with actual usage
- changed default game start settings for research to fixed paths and colonization range limit to 300M
- Data fixes and changes to correct resource costs for some components/hulls with no resource costs or incorrect costs
- Added missing fallback paths for some armor techs
- Fixes for some story event issues
- Extended range for dedicated bombardment weapons
- Simplified main menu scene to assist with consistent startup crash troubleshooting

Changes in the 1.0.2.0 Build:

DISPLAY AND RENDERING
• Reduced asset streaming memory budget to allow more memory for other rendering
• Fixed bugs when auto-detecting display mode with highest refresh rate
• Reenabled fixed timestep updates
• Added more logging to data/SessionLog.txt file: display adapter selection (including primary monitor detected), display modes, galaxy settings
• Added new setting to GameSettingsOverride.txt: GraphicsStreamingMemoryBudget allows specifying video memory in Mb allocated for asset streaming
• Added new setting to GameSettingsOverride.txt: DisableFixedTimeStep: when set to true allows disabling fixed time step (higher FPS, but also higher GPU temperatures and power usage)

CRASH FIXES
• Fixed crash when determining attack targets
• Fixed rare crash when sorting some lists in Control Center
• Fixed rare crash when opening Research screen
• Fixed rare crash when determining locations for new monitoring stations
• Fixed rare crash when changing map overlays

INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
• Increased difficulty of some intelligence missions, especially steal tech when targeting higher level research projects
• Altered how intelligence mission success chance is calculated so that always a chance of failure (even without counter-intelligence)
• Slightly increased effectiveness of counter intelligence missions (more likely to intercept enemy spy missions)

OTHER
• Fixed bug where default keyboard settings were sometimes not being generated at game startup
• Fixed bug where ships would avoid bombarding a colony that had imprisoned characters
• Fixed bug where invading characters that were killed at a colony were sometimes not removed from the colony
• Avoid executing advisor messages twice when automation is set to Suggest and Execute, e.g. building planetary facilities
• Data fixes to various events, facilities, research projects, ship hulls and artifacts (only available with a new game)