Distant Worlds 2 News

We're releasing a new update for Distant Worlds 2. As per usual, please let us know what you think of the list of changes. Your feedback is essential to keep improving the game.

Changes in 1.1.6.7 (August 29th, 2023):

[h3]PERFORMANCE[/h3]

• Important fix for a major memory usage and stability issue; this fix should reduce memory usage significantly as well as increasing stability
  

[h3]SHIP BEHAVIOR[/h3]

• Fixed military ships sometimes still attempting to refuel at dangerous locations
  
• Fighters are now more active in attacking target of parent carrier, even when not at war with target empire
  
• Point defense weapons now more responsive to intercept incoming weapons fire
  
• Automated exploration ships will now explore/survey asteroids with hidden resources when there are no other missions to perform (more thorough exploration of entire system without getting waylaid by often inconsequential asteroid resources)
  
• Individual ships in a fleet with Prepare and Attack missions will now auto-commence attack against targets at waypoint even when the rest of the fleet have not yet arrived. This covers an edge-case where the target ends up being at the waypoint (which is usually a different location). In those cases the ships that had already arrived sometimes did not engage the target, because they were waiting for the rest of the fleet.
  

So now they will engage the target if it happens to be at the fleet waypoint. No need to wait for the entire fleet in that case, because they are already at the target and likely under attack from it.

[h3]FUEL TANKERS[/h3]

• Ensure fuel tankers always completely deplete fuel cargo when refueling nearby fleet before obtaining more fuel
  

[h3]CONSTRUCTION[/h3]

• Ensure Construction Yards list properly updates ships incoming for repair or retrofit
  
• When cannot afford to build new base, can no longer right-click on locations to assign build missions to construction ships
  
• Now allow retrofitting bases when at colonies of other factions (e.g. independent colonies)
  
• Ensure spaceport construction always follows colony population limit set in empire policy (do not build before reach required population level)
  

[h3]SHIP DESIGN[/h3]

• Ensured Ion Bomb (Teekan) and Ion Pulse weapons have component families assigned for preferred weapon policy purposes
  

[h3]COLONIZATION AND MIGRATION[/h3]

• Fixed colony ships sometimes loading wrong population when some colony population policies are using Resettle policy
  
• Fixed bug where colonies that somehow got zero-population could break various things (e.g. Kasim)
  

[h3]PIRATES[/h3]

• Pirates now unlikely to cancel a protection agreement when relation trend is positive, thus less likely to get protection canceled soon after being accepted
  

[h3]RESEARCH[/h3]

• Improved AI research prioritization in various areas (weapons, planetary defense facilities, colonization, ship hulls, etc) to avoid queueing excessively long research projects
  
• Fixed excessively high priority for Administrative Facility research projects
  

[h3]PLANETARY FACILITIES[/h3]

• No longer build Terraforming Facilities at colonies that are already at 100% quality
  

[h3]DATA[/h3]

• Minor updates to various data file values for artifacts, game events, planetary facilities and troops to fix a variety of reported issues
  
• Ensure Mortakosh battleship stays at starting location instead of roaming the galaxy
  

The Galaxy lives on

The Gizureans are legion, with an incredible reproduction rate, along with a ruthless focus on gaining and consuming enough resources to keep their burgeoning populations happy enough to stave off their tendency towards tribal strife. They also have a mysterious past, as the hive mind they once had was broken and a more limited shared consciousness is all that remains (though players who choose to may still play as a Hive Mind).



They engineer their ships through partially organic processes, which allows them to be tougher, but their real focus is in their numbers. Gizureans tend to focus on numbers and tactics based on quantity in space combat, specializing in many smaller ships and large quantities of hive starfighters for their ships, stations and colony defense with the earliest access of any faction to planetary starfighter bases.



While Gizureans themselves are relatively poor scientists, their talent for thoroughly disassembling and reverse engineering anything they find or capture means that it is possible to keep up in the technological race through conquest and salvage.



The history of the Gizureans is connected with that of the Hive threat as well as the ancient enemy known as the Shakturi! The Gizurean storyline will explain the origins of the Hive and why the Gizureans are no longer, by default, a full Hive Mind.



The Gizurean victory conditions encourage numbers, growth and conquest.

• Cell Hegemony government type is a form of limited shared consciousness, which includes some of the benefits and fewer of the disadvantages of a full hive mind. Starts with better sensors and command control, more inspiring characters and a generally reduced rate of luxury resource needs.
  
• Excellent at boarding combat and gain extra bonuses from salvaging and retiring captured ships.
  
• Swarm Targeting systems make their ships more accurate the more ships there are in a fleet.
  
• Hive Hangars and Hex Armor allow them to build and repair starfighters more quickly and cover their ships with partially organic armor that takes less space and is stronger than normal alloys.
  
• Hive Fighter Bases are available to defend their planets from the very early game.
  
• Internecine Tribal Conflicts can hold them back at times and they will need to supplement their slower research through reverse engineering and conquest.
  
• Larger Carriers.
  
• Special exclusive Leader and General traits focused on improving their collective consciousness and increasing the size and resiliency of their armies.
  
• Special conditional events, such as Waste Nothing and The Scouring, give them extra bonuses when retiring ships or conquering planets. The Rivalry event means that their characters periodically engage in power struggles to eliminate the weak and Breeding World allows them to choose to boost their own growth rate further by using other species as food.
  

The Galaxy lives on


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2409480/Distant_Worlds_2_Factions__Quameno_and_Gizureans/

The Quameno are the galaxy’s greatest introverts. They prefer to be left alone to focus on their research and their societies are often organized in a way that’s equivalent to a war-time economy, except it is focused on research instead of military matters.



They value puzzle-solving and the discovery of new knowledge above almost everything else, certainly more than distractions such as diplomacy, war or espionage. They also have a natural aptitude when it comes to energy technologies and because of the abundance of energy in their ships, stations and cities, they use energy fields where many others might use solid materials.



They often follow a government type called a Geniocracy, where only the most intelligent can lead. The Quameno can build unique facilities such the Enigma Maze to determine which are most suited to rise in their Geniocracy and the Transcendence Hub, a late game wonder which will trigger a singularity of sorts, freeing them from their physical limits and allow them to research in peace through eternity.



Playing as the Quameno will give you some additional insights on the Ancient galaxy and some of the mysteries the Ancient Guardians left behind, in the form of the new Ancient Guardian Vaults. The Quameno storyline gives you the opportunity to find and open these vaults more quickly than any other faction, if you so choose.



Quameno victory conditions encourage you to complete entire tech trees and some of their special events along with the new Repeatable Tech system and their unique Transcendence Vault facility mean that the reward is worth the effort!

• Geniocracy Government starts with better Research Labs and provides the largest research bonus of all government types, at the expense of other areas, including being unable to fund bonus colony growth. A Geniocracy also has the option for additional benefits whenever a research breakthrough or research critical failure happens. In the case of crash research, you can “spend” a scientist to immediately complete the research project. In the case of a critical research failure, you can “spend” a scientist to cancel the failure and crash the project instead.
  
• The Quameno are the most gifted researchers in the galaxy, though their single-minded focus also means that they are limited when it comes to concurrent research.
  
• Additional bonuses when they find new research locations or build new research stations
  
• Some temporary penalties due to distraction when treaties are signed or populations are unassimilated, preventing the Quameno from focusing as fully as they are normally able on their research puzzles
  
• Novacore Reactors, the best reactor in the game, along with Bubble Shields which have the highest Shield Resistance of all shield types
  
• The Transcendence Hub, an end-game victory condition wonder which allows the Quameno to transcend their physical forms
  
• Larger Research Stations than other factions may build
  
• Special exclusive Leader and Scientist Traits focused on Research
  
• Special conditional events Alien Distractions, Integration Studies, Puzzle Solved, Building the Future, A Piece of the Puzzle and The Answer reward them for thematic play
  
• Their unique story gives them an advantage when it comes to finding the new Ancient Guardian Vaults scattered throughout the galaxy and recovering the knowledge and artifacts within.
  

The Galaxy lives on

Welcome back explorers, 

The day has finally come. The Discovery update, the latest major update for Distant Worlds 2, is out now and ready for you to discover.

This update brings fixes and improves many long-standing issues with gameplay and system compatibility, but the biggest changes are the addition of Ancients Guardian Vaults and the Pirate Cruisers, and the expansion of the Hive Threat. With these new additions and improvements, players will be able to experience Distant Worlds 2 like never before.





But that's not all. For those of you who want to know every detail of the Discovery update, a detailed changelog is available here. This document outlines all the changes made in the update, from major new features to minor bug fixes.

In case you didn't have the chance to watch Erik's stream on Distant Worlds 2 and its future, you can take a look at it here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

During the stream, Erik Rutins, producer and co-designer of Distant Worlds 2, previewed the Discovery update and talked about the new factions invading the galaxy and the future of the game.  

So don't waste any more time. Get ready to experience the latest version of Distant Worlds 2 and discover a new galaxy. 



The Galaxy lives on

[h3]Distant Worlds 2: Factions - Quameno & Gizureans[/h3]

The Galaxy Expands!  The second Distant Worlds 2 expansion brings two new playable factions – the introverted puzzle-solving Quameno and the numberless and ruthless Gizureans!
Distant Worlds 2: Factions - Quameno & Gizurean will be out on September 7th.

The Quameno mostly prefer to be left alone to focus on their research and their societies are often organized like war-time economies, but with a focus on research instead of military matters.  They value puzzle-solving and the discovery of new knowledge above almost everything else, certainly more than distractions such as diplomacy, war or espionage.  They also have a natural aptitude when it comes to energy technologies and because of the abundance of energy in their ships, stations and cities, they use energy fields where many others might use solid materials.  

Their governments are typically based on a Geniocracy, which uses unique facilities such as the Enigma Maze to determine which are the most worthy to lead and the Transcendence Hub, a wonder which will trigger a singularity of sorts, which will free them from their physical limits and allow research to continue through eternity.

The Gizureans are legion, with an incredible reproduction rate, along with a ruthless focus on gaining and consuming enough resources to keep their burgeoning populations happy enough to stave off their tendency towards tribal strife.  They also have a mysterious past, as the hive mind they once had was broken and a more limited shared consciousness is all that remains.  They engineer their ships through partially organic processes, which allows them to be tougher, but their real focus is in their numbers.  Gizureans tend to focus on numbers and tactics based on quantity in space combat, specializing in many smaller ships and large quantities of hive starfighters for their ships, stations and colony defense with the earliest access of any faction to planetary starfighter bases.

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 Quameno will give you some additional insights on the Ancient galaxy and some of the mysteries the Ancient Guardians left behind, while the history of the Gizureans is connected with that of the Hive threat as well as the ancient enemy known as the Shakturi!

[h3]Distant Worlds 2 - Discovery Update[/h3]



But that’s not all, we have some other exciting news for you: Thursday August 10th at 04.30pm BST, on our channel there will be a special streaming event with Erik Rutins, producer and co-designer of Distant Worlds 2. Get a reminder here. 



During the stream, Erik will be previewing the upcoming Discovery update, releasing on August 22nd, which brings fixes and improves many long-standing issues with gameplay and system compatibility. In addition, the new update will bring new contents to the game. 



This is an amazing opportunity to get an exclusive preview of the new update for Distant Worlds 2, straight from the source. You won't want to miss it!

The streaming event will be taking place on August 10th at 04.30pm BST, so be sure to tune in and join us for what promises to be an incredible showcase of Distant Worlds 2.

See you there. 

The Galaxy lives on

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2409480/Distant_Worlds_2_Factions__Quameno_and_Gizureans/