Distant Worlds 2 News

Welcome back explorers,
the Control Update, now available, is a major free update that refreshes the Zenox and Boskara factions as well as improvements to make manual control of the players’ empire easier.

This major update is focused on improvements to manual control of your empire, including Queued Missions, UI Improvements, Policy Improvements and a new Galaxy Search feature to make empire management easier when you turn off most of the automation. There is also a full refresh of the base game Zenox and Boskara factions to bring them up to the same level as the DLC factions, including a significant update for the look of the Zenox shipset. Finally, there are many other fixes and improvements, including to ship and fleet behavior, AI improvements and a major adjustment to economic and research bonus funding.

Don’t miss the preview on our channel with Erik, where he showcases and explains all the new features of this major update: https://www.youtube.com/embed/iBp-6q6A2NM

For those of you who want to know every detail of the Control Update, a detailed changelog is available below:
[expand]
CRASH FIXES
- fixed crash when applying Migration or Tourism settings while starting game
- fixed crash when fulfilling resource order
- fixed rare crash when selecting random ship component to damage when weapon strikes ship
- fixed rare crash when drawing facilities at a planet
- fixed rare crash when generating new ship design
- now prevent the game from crashing when mod bundle loading fails for any reason. Instead now add error message to Session Log
- fixed crash when transferring artifacts discovered in ruins
- fixed some rare crashes
- fixed rare crash in Character screen
- fixed crash when generating XML schema
- fixed rare crash when loading game
- fixed rare crash when fleets check for threats
- fixed rare crash when progressing Shakturi rift destabilization

ENGINE IMPROVEMENTS
- upgraded to latest version of .Net random number generator

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
- performance improvements, especially in large games with much ship debris
- improved performance when editing a ship design where there are already very many ships of the same role (e.g. fighters)
- improved performance when opening Research screen in large games with many Research Stations

GALAXY SETUP
- added new settings in Start New Game screen for Your Empire Starting Situation step: Homeworld Situation allows setting whether start at planet or moon. Home System Critical Resources allows setting whether all critical construction resources are ensured to be available in your home system
- made small improvement to empire color distribution (making each empire color different)

QUEUED MISSIONS
Queued missions have been a long-requested feature and this is their first appearance in Distant Worlds 2. We hope this implementation will improve manual play and give more options for better control of fleets and ships.
- added queued missions for Ships and Fleets. To use, hold down Shift key while right-clicking on a target to queue a mission (instead of immediately assigning it). Use Shift key with hold-right-click to popup a menu of available missions that can be queued. When a ship or fleet has queued missions, the popup mission menu will also have an option to 'Clear Queued Missions'. Missions that subsequently become invalid will be automatically removed from the queue, just as already happens for the current mission, e.g. when an attack target is destroyed or changes ownership, when you end a war against another faction, etc. Note that the Distance measurement system is now activated using the Alt key instead of the Shift key
- Queuing most mission types also switches the ship or fleet to manual control, with the exception of Refuel, Repair and Retrofit missions (as with normal mission assignment). Stop button now also clears all queued missions (not just the current mission). Alternatively, the player can hold down the Shift key when clicking the Stop button to just clear the current mission and proceed to the next queued mission. Assigning a new mission to a ship or fleet will also clear all queued missions
- Changed Stop command for automated ships and fleets so that pause before reassigning mission so that player can see the effects of their action

ZENOX FACTION UPGRADE
This update includes the Zenox faction refresh. This adds several new gameplay mechanics for the Zenox as well as an updated and improved shipset. For details, see 'Special Features' section of the Zenox race description in Start New Game screen (or their Galactopedia topic)
- This build also includes a number of changes to Zenox components, research projects and planetary facilities, including the new Megatron Planetary Shield facility, expanded Crystal Sensors and Star Beams.
- upgraded models and textures for Zenox ships and bases
- added Zenox Search the Archives event
- added new event and loading art

BOSKARA FACTION UPGRADE
This update includes the Boskara faction refresh, including new gameplay mechanics and features. For details, see the ‘Special Features’ section of the Boskara race description in the Start New Game screen (or their Galactopedia topic).
- includes a number of changes to Boskara research projects and planetary facilities, including the new Core-linked Weapons Mega Lab.
- minor graphical updates to models and textures for Boskara ships and bases
- added new event and loading art

EXPLORATION AND GALAXY SEARCH
- added new screen to Exploration section: Known Stars, Planets and Moons. Can use various filters and sorts to find all known galactic locations
- added new screen to Exploration section: Search Known Items. Can search for any item by name. Type text to filter what is displayed in list. Will look for any known/visible stars, planets, moons, asteroids, ships, bases, ruins, facilities, characters, troop units and artifacts
- Pinged locations from galaxy map now show up in Special Locations list in Exploration section (until explored)

UI IMPROVEMENTS
- Main view header bar at the top of the screen will now automatically extend onto additional rows when content is too wide (e.g. lots of events and war scores)
- fixed combat icon in galaxy map sometimes failing to clear for a system
- fixed race bias display in Select Your Race screen so that includes zero-rated races
- added Resource Abundance sort option in New Mining Locations list. Sorts by total abundance and includes total abundance of all asteroids within mining range
- in Selection Panel, sub-selected facilities and troops at a colony can now be deselected by clicking on them again
- added section line dividers when displaying detailed stats for all components and planetary facilities
- fixed Migration and Tourism flow map overlays to show flow lines for correct selected race
- fixed very long lists sometimes being truncated, e.g. Ship Designs list
- added tooltips to relevant sections of Start New Game screen to explain how to completely disable pirates (e.g. story-related, etc)
- hovering Fleet posture description in Selection Panel now previews Tactical Settings window, clicking the Fleet posture description opens Tactical Settings window
- hovering Fleet posture description in Selection Panel now previews Tactical Settings window, clicking the Fleet posture description opens Tactical Settings window
- improved mouse up/down operations in various areas to help avoid mistaken clicks: Population Policy screen no longer closes when click between policy settings buttons for each race, Research screen no longer registers mouse-up event on Queue Suggested Project button immediately after opening screen
- added new filter options to New Mining Locations list: Fuel Resources, Construction Resources, Luxury Resources
- added new sort option to New Mining Locations list: Safe Locations First (Dangerous Locations at bottom)
- added title to colony bonus tooltips in Selection Panel to clarify that Empire Bonuses listed in the colony selection dialog are *from* the colony (NOT a comprehensive list of all empire bonuses that apply to the colony – to see all empire bonuses that apply throughout your empire look at the Bonuses tab under the top left Empire overview)

EMPIRE POLICIES
- added new empire policy settings to control whether your empire will auto-scrap military ships and troops when have serious economic shortfall. For player these are off by default

WEAPON POLICIES
- A new weapon policy for shield enhancement components has been added. You can now set a priority level for your faction to use the shield enhancement component.

PLANETARY FACILITIES
- Terraforming facilities now take into account planet damage when considering whether suitability is below buildable level, i.e. planet damage is excluded when calculating build suitability. This will allow building terraforming facilities on damaged planets that would otherwise be suitable for terraforming.
- further reworked how planetary facility construction automation categories relate to specific facilities. Galactic Wonders are now clearly indicated in all situations. Added further automation categories for facility building: Construction, Research, Recreation
- extended criteria for determining planetary facility automation type so that Interstellar Trader's Bazaar and Holographic Network properly follow automation settings

SHIP AND FLEET BEHAVIOR
- automated fleets now more careful to include other threats at location (e.g. other creatures) when evaluating attack against creature
- fleets now actively review lead ship while under construction, thus improving ability of fleet to move directly to new home base without first gathering to lead ship location while it is still under construction (which could be at a location different from the fleet home base)
- improved Fleet retreat evaluation to better handle unusual situations where attack target starts at one location but then quickly moves to another well-defended location in same system, thus triggering a retreat from the attacking fleet
- fleets now prefer non-dangerous locations when refuelling, but will fallback to include dangerous locations if no other option (helps avoid Kasim and other dangerous locations)
- Defense fleets will now auto-attack fixed targets (i.e. bases) when needed, so that their behavior is better aligned with investigating Dangerous locations
- automated fleets will no longer assign attack (clear defenses) or blockade missions against independent colonies
- automated 'Refuel and Attack' fleet missions will no longer use attack target for refuelling, e.g. when attacking/invading an independent colony
- improved automated fleet troop loading so that attempts to load larger groups of troops even when load colony is further away
- improved display of Fleet posture in Selection Panel, especially for Manually-controlled fleets, thus giving better visibility to when the fleet will auto-engage targets
- fixed rare issue where fleet undertaking invasion mission with staging point may become indefinitely stalled

FLEET TEMPLATES
- fixed Load/Save Fleet Templates functionality
- fixed missing tooltip for Fleet Templates button

SHIP DESIGN
- changed Upgrade Design button so that now selects best upgrade component for each existing component, retaining the same component family. Previously the Upgrade Design button simply selected the highest tech level component for the category. See button tooltip for more info
- rebalanced component selection logic so that automated research and designs much more strongly guided by preferred weapon families from empire policy, even when faction also has preferred weapon components
- ship and base designs are now refreshed much sooner when you change preferred component families in the Empire Policy screen (when Ship Design is automated)
- in Ship Design screen, left-clicking on an empty bay in the model in the main view will now popup a component selection list (same as left-clicking on an empty bay in the Design Bays list)
- rebalanced some component and research project scoring to improve research pathing and ship design for some factions (take better account of their preferred component families)
- Capped maximum damage reduction for a ship from all sources to 90% (prevent invulnerable ships)
- ensure automated ship and base design always follows policy settings for Weapon preferences, even when evaluating weapon fallback options (when do not have a weapon of the desired category). This means avoiding selection of fallback weapons where policy specifies that particular weapon category should be 'Do Not Use'

RESEARCH
- non-specific research progress and breakthroughs from story events, abandoned ships/bases and ruins will now try to avoid selecting projects that are explicitly disabled for the discoverer race, i.e. when disallowed for the faction on the tech tree

VISIBILITY
- adjusted visibility level when have direct presence at location (e.g. ship or base) so that high-level Stealth components do not make items completely invisible

BOARDING AND RAIDS
- slowed down boarding assault rate to improve Capture and Raid missions for ships and bases

EMPIRE BONUSES
- fixed empire bonuses being applied twice to ships in a fleet

TROOPS
- ensure that Special Forces troops defending a colony are never invulnerable to attack

TARGETS LIST
- Fixed Enemy Targets list filter sometimes not working for some empires

ECONOMY
- adjusted ratio of empire funding (Research + Colony Growth) down from 50% to 25% of total Research and total Growth, thus ensuring higher baseline research and growth rate even without full bonus funding
- fixed rare issue where empire cash on hand value becomes NaN

ESPIONAGE
- ensure target empire is still active (not wiped out) before auto-populating new spy mission from previous mission

DIPLOMACY
- in Alliance list, for each Alliance show all their wars with other alliances and empires
- fixed last diplomatic gift date rarely not being recorded, resulting in too frequent gifts
- Bases in diplomatic trade deals (e.g. Mining Stations) now also include the value of any cargo onboard (at 25% of normal price)
- Vassalized empires may now accept peace offers from other empires when their parent empire is not at war with the offering empire, this fixes some corner cases where vassals could not exit wars
- fixed bug where advisor suggestions to offer diplomatic gifts could sometimes be implemented without player approval
- added totals to Offered Items section of Diplomacy trade screen

COLONIZATION AND OUTPOSTS
- Automated Colony Ships now also check whether the system of a queued colonization target has subsequently become part of another empire's territory and thus can no longer be colonized (avoid load/unload passengers cycle)
- Adjusted AI evaluation of Outpost viability at a planet or moon so that give less priority to some lower-importance bonuses and so that automated Colonization does not establish Outposts at planets with empire bonus levels that are too low.
- fixed bug where independent colonies with races with very poor bonuses would sometimes not appear in New Colonies list
- further improvements to colonization target selection for Colony Ships, especially to avoid multiple colony ships targeting same planet

DOCKING
- refuelling and cargo load/unload are now much slower (10%) when ship is not docked inside a hangar bay at a base, i.e. when parked outside base, or when loading/unloading from a colony
- fixed bug where docking bay components were not working when they were the only hangar-style components in the external bays of a design

GOVERNMENTS
- fixed data bug in governments that allowed factions to exist with zero colonies, thus blocking empires from being removed when they lose their last colony

CHARACTERS
- made negative character traits from passive activity much less likely for Generals and Admirals (Drunk, Poor Recruiter)
- when Spies complete a mission to Steal Tech from another faction, they now remember the details of the last mission, allowing easy one-click reassignment to the same or similar mission (same target faction, same mission type, same research project if not already researched)
- reduced amount of characters as empire grows larger, but with slightly higher amount at start of game
- added new sort options to Spies screen: sort by each spy skill type (Counter Espionage, Espionage, Sabotage, etc)
- fixed Prisoners list filters showing characters for wrong role
- automated Spies will now avoid selecting research projects to steal that are disallowed for their empire's race

ARTIFACTS
- fixed artifact location transference so that always properly changes empire as needed

PLANETARY FACILITIES
- ensure planetary tractor beam facilities properly review stats on game load so that function properly

GAME EVENTS
- prevent pirates from triggering EmpireRelationChange events for independent colonies
- fixed 'Return of the Ancient Guardians' story event missing message title and text
- fixed initial Ancient Guardian vault techs sometimes not unlocking for player
- fixed Kasim story event for Dhayut so that Exterminating or Enslaving the population now properly removes the colony instead of just reducing the population to zero
- fixed some facility and story images to use Crashed Ancient Ship
- improved some faction story events relating to independent colonies
- extended message game event actions to allow forced aggregation of all message output for the event, even when the event has delayed execution
- added EmpireRelationChange game event trigger type for independent colonies to support various story events
- added new game event condition types to allow better story event options when have no available characters for a role

GALAXY GENERATION
- Slightly increased some bonus values for randomly-generated ruins

SHAKTURI CRISIS
- ensure Freedom Alliance forms without player after player rejects diplomatic story option to form Freedom Alliance themselves
- ensure Shakturi Beacon facility is properly removed after researching 'Destroy Shakturi Beacon' project

PSYCHIC RESISTANCE
This is a new feature that will be used to support the next content expansion for DW2.
- Implemented Psychic Resistance value in various areas: intelligence missions, psychic weapons, psychic troop defection. Races with high Psychic Resistance (Shakturi) are less susceptible in these areas

GAME EDITOR
- allow changing color for any standard empire in Game Editor (Edit Empire > Primary Color). This affects the color of empire territory and ship/base symbols, among others
- improved overall lighting in Ship Design screen

MODDING AND LOCALIZATION
- Added support for zero-width spaces (Unicode 200B) as valid line-breaks when rendering multi-line text. This better supports localization for some languages (e.g. Japanese)
- added improved support for zero-width characters for Chinese/Japanese/Korean character sets (now rendered with zero-width in long text with word-wrap)
- added further improvements to zero-width character support for Chinese/Japanese/Korean character sets
- added Psychic Resistance to Empire Bonuses list with tooltip showing sources and amounts (e.g. race and any relevant artifacts)
- added new command line option to load a custom font bundle for localizing languages that use non-Latin character sets. Please see modding sub-forum for details.

SHIP MODELS
- fixed some minor issues in the Zenox small spaceport model
- updated Human ship and base models with fixed running light positions
- small updates to fix minor issues with some Ackdarian ship models
- various other model fixes

DATA
- Various adjustments to component and ship hull values
- Various ship hull fixes
- Various minor spelling and event fixes
- changed Teekan Ion Bomb category to Ion Weapon instead of Area Weapon

IKKURO AND DHAYUT DLC
- Added missing Artifact descriptions
- Various event fixes

QUAMENO AND GIZUREAN DLC
- Various event fixes
[/expand]

The Galaxy lives on

WISHLIST NOW THE UPCOMING DLC:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350550/Distant_Worlds_2_Factions__Atuuk_and_Wekkarus/

The Wekkarus are the most ancient and mysterious of any of the current factions in Distant Worlds 2.
Due to their unique origins and history, the Wekkarus tend to keep themselves in the dark depths of their deep ocean planets.





Their preferred habitats and unique origins give the Wekkarus several key advantages, such as improved research, due to their ancient knowledge of the galaxy, as well as improved mining rate and access to secret riches of their ocean planets. However, the Wekkarus truly come into their own due to their unique ability to manifest “ghosts” of their ancestors to help them survive the chaos of the galaxy.



The Wekkarus signature Ancestors Among Us ability, allows “ghost” ships, troops, and even some characters to appear in moments of stress to help their fellow Wekkarus in various combat situations and matters of state, including research, diplomacy, and espionage. In fact, the Wekkarus story will delve into the nature of this ability and also reveal a frightful connection to one of the galaxy’s greatest threats. The Wekkarus’ ancient knowledge also grants them a variety of faction-specific technologies, including the powerful Pulse Wave Cannon, a high-powered tractor beam, and a unique shield enhancement component.



Wekkarus victory conditions tie directly into their distrust of invaders, as well as their unique “ghost” characters. More precisely, the Wekkarus have three unique ancient and powerful artifacts scattered across the galaxy they seek to reclaim to restore a portion of their former glory.



Players can expect the following unique features for the Wekkarus when they purchase Distant Worlds 2: Factions – Atuuk and Wekkarus:

• In times of stress, during combat in space and on planet surfaces, as well as certain character actions, the Wekkarus summon their ancient Ancestors for aid. In combat, these ancestors will manifest as “ghost” ships and troops that can tip the scale in the Wekkarus’ favor. Character Ancestors will either manifest at a location that most requires their aid or will provide boons to strengthen diplomatic ties or protect their spies from danger
  
• Due to their ancient mastery of space travel, their ships are faster and harder to hit, but are more delicate and fragile when taking hits. This also makes them more adept at new engine technologies
  
• The Wekkarus have a slew of unique technologies for their ships, including their signature Pulse Wave Cannon, the high-powered Constrictor tractor beam, and special shield enhancement component – the HydroCore Capacitor
  
• Living in the dark depths of Ocean and Deep Ocean planets, the Wekkarus have bonuses to counter-espionage and mining rate. Their unique habitats allow them to dig into the cores of the planets they live on and discover previously hidden resources
  
• Defensive Caverns facilities make the Wekkarus a tough nut to crack for any invading force, while unwelcome spies will find themselves lost in the labyrinths of Wekkarus cities
  
• The special Wekkarus connection to their ancestors will occasionally improve the skills of their scientists, letting them uncover hidden knowledge more quickly
  
• Special exclusive Spy and Scientist traits accenting Wekkarus secrecy and otherworldly wisdom
  
• Powerful unique artifacts will reveal themselves in the Wekkarus story, which directly strengthen the connection to their ancestors. The artifacts have basic effects for any faction that lays claim to them, though only the Wekkarus can utilize their true power
  
• Due to their mysterious origins and unique biology, Wekkarus are more resilient to the effects of psychic weapons and abilities than most other factions of Distant Worlds 2
  

WISHLIST NOW:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350550/Distant_Worlds_2_Factions__Atuuk_and_Wekkarus/

The Atuuk are the youngest starfarers of the galaxy. They are highly sociable and are eager to take their place amongst the other factions in the galaxy and prove that they too can be great.





While the Atuuk don’t excel in any particular area of empire building, in fact, they are a generally a bit worse, they more than make up for it with their high population growth, overall higher levels of happiness, and affinity for diplomacy. However, the Atuuk’s greatest strength is their society’s ability to mobilize and organize around the Great Direction – their faction’s flagship mechanic.



Whenever the Atuuk choose a Great Direction, a general focus for their society, they become extremely proficient in one area of their empire and can even surpass some of the other factions, though only temporarily. Alongside the Great Direction, the Atuuk forego the normal leadership mechanics of Distant Worlds’ governments and instead their leaders will change occasionally based on the constantly shifting Great Directions the Atuuk pursue. The Atuuk yearn for a Great One to lead them on their Great Directions, and this Great One, in turn makes Atuuk society all the more inspired and motivated. It is possible that these Great Ones may turn out not to be true Great Ones, which will lead to a new selection of Great Ones until a true Great One is found.



Atuuk victory conditions also flow from their Great Directions. There are seven Great Directions in total, each providing a unique objective that thematically fits with the Great Direction’s features. As such, the Great Directions are there not only to provide bonuses to your faction, but to challenge you to truly take the Atuuk to galactic greatness.





Players can expect the following unique features for the Atuuk when they purchase Distant Worlds 2: Factions – Atuuk and Wekkarus:

• Unique mechanics tied to the Atuuk Great Direction – a cyclical change of focus for Atuuk society that greatly improves their abilities in a singular area of their empire, ranging from improved research to greatly enhanced combat strength, and many more, while also providing an increasing number of victory objectives to prove their greatness to the galaxy. Periodically, Atuuk will need to choose a new Great One from a pool of their own marked with Great Potential to lead them on their Great Direction. Some Atuuk may have reservations on the direction the Atuuk are taking with Direction Doubt, though this is only temporary.
  
• The Atuuk are a happy faction that plays well on the galactic diplomatic stage, though they are naïve, gullible, and quite dim-witted, which means they don’t excel in any particular area when not following one of their special Great Directions.
  
• Additional and surprising bonuses and effects when pressing the big glowing Red Button on their science stations
  
• Atuuk construction standards aren’t quite up to snuff compared to the other galactic players, so their ships will experience unexpected malfunctions while traversing the galaxy.
  
• Bonuses to combat when outnumbering their opponents when fighting on the planet surface. There are a lot of Atuuk!
  
• The Intergalactic Welcome Center makes the Atuuk empire more attractive for all migrants and tourists, thus strengthening the bonds of interstellar understanding
  
• Collection of Great Things – a unique facility that gathers all the wondrous things the Atuuk have gathered in their travels and exploration that improve their overall happiness and research
  
• Special thematic Character Traits for their entire lineup of characters bringing out the flavor of the Atuuk faction
  
• Their unique story gives them an advantage when dealing with some of the factions in the galaxy to help them form strong bonds and long-standing treaties.
  
• Atuuk are the first faction to be completely immune to psychic effects, making them a useful ally for anyone fighting psychically-capable factions
  

WISHLIST NOW:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350550/Distant_Worlds_2_Factions__Atuuk_and_Wekkarus/

Welcome Back, explorers.

We're thrilled to announce that Distant Worlds 2: Atuuk and Wekkarus, the third Faction DLC for the acclaimed 4X space strategy game Distant Worlds 2 is coming on the third of April. This new DLC brings two brand new playable factions: the naive and energetic Atuuk and the mysterious Wekkarus.

The Atuuk were one of the last races to develop faster-than-light technology and make their first steps into interstellar travel before the Cataclysm hit the galaxy. They are not a particularly smart race and were only able to develop faster-than-light technology after ships from a faction they call The Long-Ago Friends crashed on the Atuuk homeworld. The Atuuk make up for their diminished intellect with a great sense of wonder, excitement at trying new things, and an overall friendliness towards other factions. Although the Atuuk aren’t particularly great at anything, their strength comes from the ability of their society to unify and focus on a particular area for a limited time. This is encapsulated in their central feature of choosing a Great Direction every few years which provides a set of objectives and bonuses for their society. The Atuuk narrative centers around their desire to find these Long-Ago Friends who gave them faster-than-light travel and to take their place in the wider galaxy to show everyone and to prove to themselves how great they are. During this journey, they face difficult and challenging truths about the galaxy and who their friends really are.



The Wekkarus are the most alien faction to inhabit the galaxy. Some among them even say they did not originate in this galaxy. Their legends speak of a timeless, ancient war that left them far diminished from what they once were. As such, they keep to themselves and live in the deepest darkest caverns of ocean planets, preserving what remains of Wekkarus society. Their story centers around rediscovering lost artifacts, outposts, and ruins to learn of their origins and the secrets of their ancient war with a dangerous enemy. The Wekkarus highlight feature is their mysterious connection with their ancient ancestors – a manifested collective memory of the Wekkarus. This ability can trigger whenever Wekkarus find themselves under heightened stress. In such times they connect with the echoes and vestiges of their ancestors for both guidance and direct support.




Each of these new factions also comes with their own special storyline and unique story locations, adding to the possible exploration events and to your knowledge of galactic lore. The Atuuk will take you on a path of discovery and revelation as the Atuuk are introduced to the wonders of starfaring and realize who their friends are, while the history of the Wekkarus will take you on a quest to find powerful ancient artifacts that will lead to earth-shattering truths about their origins and a terrifying connection to the greatest threats to the galaxy!

[h3]CONTROL UPDATE [/h3]
But that’s not all, we have some other exciting news for you the Control update is coming soon.



Control Update Highlights:

• Boskara and Zenox factions refreshed with new gameplay and improved ship and station textures
  
• Queued Mission support added for Ships and Fleets to help with manual playstyles
  
• Galaxy Search added to allow players to easily find any star, planet, moon, station, ship or any other item on the galactic map
  
• UI improvements to help with information management:
  
  • Exploration now tracks pinged locations in the Special Locations section
    
  • Improvements to top header bar
    
  • Additional sort and filter options for various lists
    
  • Improvements to Migration and Tourism map overlays
    
  • Additional tooltips
• Additional Galaxy Setup options for your starting system
  
• Improvements to Upgrade Ship Designs and Design/Research Policy AI
  
• Improved management of Planetary Facilities
  
• Save/Load Fleet Templates
  
• Improved Fleet and Ship Behavior
  
• Improved Colonization behavior, especially with Outposts
  
• Improved modding support for localization.
  

Keep an eye on our channel because there will be a lot of special streaming event with Erik Rutins, producer and co-designer of Distant Worlds 2. Get a reminder here.

WISHLIST NOW:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350550/Distant_Worlds_2_Factions__Atuuk_and_Wekkarus/

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone in the Distant Worlds 2 community.
As before, Elliot and I would like to thank our players for their patience and support since Distant Worlds 2 was released. 2023 saw our first two expansions for Distant Worlds 2 along with four Major updates (Aurora, Hyperspeed, Discovery and Fleet).
We continued improving DW2 with the Stellar, Game Faction and Maintenance updates in 2024, along with the release of our first feature expansion, Return of the Shakturi. Thus in 2024 customers received faction refreshes and many, many game improvements and fixes for free along with the one big Shakturi expansion.
We hope you have been enjoying Return of the Shakturi and we’re excited to share with you what’s coming next for Distant Worlds 2.



[h3]The Current State of the Game[/h3]
We’ve continued to put a large part of our effort into ongoing free updates for the DW2 community to keep improving the game, rather than just focusing on DLC content or locking everything behind expansions. As a result, the base game is much improved and continuing to improve over time. We continue to improve almost all gameplay areas as well as the AI, which saw major improvements as part of the work on Return of the Shakturi and would run circles around the empire AI at release.
There has been a lot of positive feedback about our free base faction refreshes and I’m glad to say that these will continue, with the next two just around the corner. We have the Boskara and the Zenox due to be refreshed in the next official update by the end of Q1 2025, which includes some texture fixes for the Boskara ships and stations and a major overhaul of the look of the Zenox ships and stations. The Teekans and Haakonish should follow by the end of 2025, leaving the Ackdarians as the final base game faction to refresh, likely next year.
Return of the Shakturi took a great deal of our time, but we think the results were worth the effort. As a result of that, we are already planning our next Feature Expansion while we finish the upcoming Atuuk and Wekkarus DLC, which we expect to officially announce soon. Both of these factions have some very unique gameplay which we think you will enjoy and they also have some unique lore and gameplay that interacts with the Return of the Shakturi expansion.
While we are a very small team, we are committed to both expanding the game with new DLCs and expansions but also continuing to update and improve the base game through our ongoing free updates. We want to make sure everyone who purchased DW2 can enjoy it to its fullest on their system and for their playstyle.

[h3]Roadmap 2025[/h3]
We are happy to share our journey with you, along with the roadmap outlining the next steps for this year.



[h3]Our next areas to focus on:[/h3]

1. Update the base factions in the game, one by one, to a similar level as the recently released DLCs when it comes to faction and government gameplay differentiation. Completed for the Humans and Mortalen, Boskara and Zenox are almost finished. Teekan and Haakonish should follow late this year and the Ackdarians are last in line, probably in 2026 to complete the base faction refresh.
   
2. Continuing improvements on fleet and ship behavior. There have been major improvements and fixes for the fleet and ship AI as part of the Return of the Shakturi, which was in the base game updates, though it always seems that there’s another corner case or two to address. We still plan to also add more guidance for fleet and ship tactical settings as well as more detail in the galactopedia to help players understand how to use their fleets.
   
3. Further improvements to pathing issues as well as pathfinding performance. We made some significant improvements here during 2024 and the more recent reports suggest that pathfinding issues are far less frequent now, but some remain especially when starting a path from deep space and near nebulas. Additional improvements are planned after the next official update.
   
4. Improve the AI further. As part of the Return of the Shakturi work, we greatly improved the AI in many areas including economic management and diplomatic/military strategy. As always, there’s more that can be done. We still need to improve the population policy side, specific to slavery but also other policies. We plan to revisit the design of these in the future and also improve the AI’s management of population policies.
   
5. Improve quality of life for manual players further. We have just added support for queued orders in the first public beta update for 2025. We’ve also added a map search function to the exploration menu along with a few other features to help with manual exploration. We have a list of additional improvements for manual play which we will be working through as the year progresses.
   
6. Improve message handling and awareness further. We added a new much more detailed message filtering system with separate message centers in 2024, including a new combat overlay to help with spotting battle activity during wars and a separate message center for advisor messages. We are still working to add the ability to tell an advisor “do not suggest this again” or to tell a Pirate or an Empire “do not contact me again with this offer” to help further reduce message spam.
   
7. Adding a Galactopedia and Galaxy map Search function. We now have a galaxy map search aand a distance measurement tool. The Galactopedia search will be coming in an update this year.
   
8. Modding support will continue to be a priority. We’ve expanded this greatly since release, including the addition of an in-game mod manager, Steam Workshop support and much better handling of multiple mods. We also recently added support for code modding and deobfuscated more methods to better support localization mods for more complex languages.
   
9. There are also other reported issues beyond those above which we will also address as we go forward, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are our current highest priority goals. We have been compiling master lists of all issue reports by category and as our time allows, we work our way through these areas to make sure we continue to improve the player experience with DW2.

[h3]Future Expansions[/h3]
As always, the Content and Art teams are not heavily involved in most of the game fixes we’ve been working through, so they have been spending most of their time working on future releases.
Our first priority is the Atuuk and Wekkarus DLC, which will release in early Q2 2025. Stay tuned for our official announcement in Q1 which will reveal the exact release date and more details about these new factions. Each of them has unique new gameplay features and interesting lore that ties into the DW2 and Shakturi storylines.
The Wekkarus are among the most ancient and mysterious aliens in DW2 with possible connections to the Shakturi. The Atuuk are space lemmings of a sort who were just barely smart enough to figure out FTL. This DLC will work fine whether you have “Return of the Shakturi” or not, but will have some additional features/content related to that expansion if you have it. If you don’t like what the Shakturi psychic abilities can do to you when they show up, you will probably love playing as the Atuuk, who are almost entirely resistant to psychic effects.
We are also in the planning stages for the next feature expansion and I can tease that it will at last bring playable Pirates to DW2. We won’t be announcing that officially until much later this year as we are still working through the design. We expect it to be a 2025 release.
Work has also begun on the fourth "Factions" DLC. All we can say about that now is that it includes the Securans and the Naxxilians and will likely release in 2026.



[h3]Update Schedule[/h3]
It will generally take 6-12 weeks of public beta updates to get to an update that is stable enough to become official. For 2025, we expect to release public beta updates roughly every two weeks and new free official updates every 3 months or so, though there may be a slow down in that schedule once the Pirate expansion work gets into high gear.

[h3]Our Thanks[/h3]
Thank you again if you took the time to read all of this and for your support of Distant Worlds 2. Please check in regularly going forward and try the newest beta updates if you’d like to see how things are shaping up.
Please stay tuned for more information on Atuuk and Wekkarus DLC in Q1 and more on the Pirate Expansion and future DLCs later this year.

Sincerely,
Erik Rutins and Elliot Gibbs
Matrix Games and CodeForce