Last week I attended a live demo and Q&A session with its producer and co-designer Erik Rutins.
What’s immediately clear was that, as a bare minimum, the UI is already vastly improved.
It’s fairly standard stuff in 2022, and the influence ofStellarisin particular is clear.
This isn’t just window dressing either.
Rutins tells us immediately that “this is a 64-bit, multi-threaded 3D engine.
It’s a whole new code base… basically Distant Worlds rebuilt from the ground up.”
The old engine was beyond creaking at the seams."
I’m hoping this approach will remedy those early stumbling blocks.
This attitude extends to diplomacy, too.
Inevitably, I asked whether I could be a pirate faction.
But there will still be AI pirates to fight and bargain with.
You really only get all the pieces of the entire narrative if you play through each faction."
But the order that you find it, and what happens, is up to you."
Planetary populations, meanwhile, demand luxury resources to keep growing.
The private sector will mine and transport those goods, but only as effectively as your state infrastructure permits.
Exploration ships have new, more nuanced AI configs to differentiate between basic exploration, prospecting, and spying.
At one point, Rutins even says my holy word: “salvage”.
This talk of ships brings us to the design screen.
DWU had a somewhat abstracted ship design process.
DW2 replaces that with a 3D hull and hardpoint-based system.
Each hull has predefined bays, including weapon mounts that also define the field of fire.
you’re able to still choose the equipment you want, but the parameters look more restrictive.
On the plus side, this leaves room for more differentiation between hulls and factions.
You usually need a defensive fleet, or several orbital bases to fully cover it from attack."
There’s plenty of war to be mongered too, of course.
Each research facility apparently specialises somewhat, as do recruited scientists.
More information rapidly becomes an ever-increasing list of small details.
Distant Worlds 2 is currently due out on March 10th.
We’ll havemore impressions and thoughtsas soon as we can get anything more substantial.
