Distant Worlds 2

[Asid]

Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi - Dev Log #1
Wed, 11 September 2024



The Rise of the Shakturi



Hello everyone. This is the first of three Developer Blogs we’ll be doing in the lead up to the release of Return of the Shakturi, the first feature expansion for Distant Worlds 2. This initial blog will focus on the Shakturi crisis, Planet Destroyers, and Mega Ships. Please note that you will have a choice of whether you want to play with the Shakturi crisis or not and the ability to adjust when the crisis begins to suit your challenge level.
The second and third blogs will go into detail on additional features and improvements that this expansion brings to the base game, including those that will be available as part of a free update for all Distant Worlds 2 players and those that are available even if you are not playing through the actual Shakturi crisis.

As most Distant Worlds players know, the Shakturi are an ancient and terrible threat which was responsible for the last cataclysmic galactic war, the scars and remains of which are visible throughout the current galaxy. The story to date through the base game and the faction DLCs has given various clues about the Shakturi. You’ve seen places of gravitic instability and ancient closed wormholes, bits and pieces of old communication logs detailing a massive conflict, mind-affecting viruses, and some remaining “vaults” set up by artificial intelligences called the Ancient Guardians to preserve knowledge from that previous era. Along with all that, for those who searched well enough, there was even a single ancient but non-functioning Mortalen planet destroyer.
With Return of the Shakturi, you now get to experience what a proper endgame crisis in Distant Worlds 2 is like and what fighting against (or with) a major endgame threat like the Shakturi means for your empire.







The crisis begins with a gradual build-up, which can be seen in the livestream preview we did, but once the Shakturi arrive, it becomes evident fairly quickly that they have some knowledge and abilities that are beyond other empires. The Shakturi have mastered certain areas of research that appear for the first time in this expansion – namely Psychic, Genetic Engineering and Biowarfare. We’ll go through each of these in detail below.
Their powerful Psychic abilities allow the Shakturi to enhance their diplomacy, espionage, counter-espionage, space and ground combat. They can take over characters and even in the worst case take over the leader of an empire, at a minimum causing chaos but for some empires like Hive Minds, potentially even vassalizing that empire. In space combat, the Shakturi can incapacitate the crews of your ships, or even cause them to hallucinate and fire on their own allies. In ground combat, your divisions can be disabled or even caused to temporarily defect to the Shakturi side.



All of these are limited by the psychic energy generated by the Shakturi in the galaxy. In other words, the more Shakturi there are, the more frequent and more powerful their capabilities will be. You will need to start from the beginning, understanding what psychic energy is, how to disrupt it and how to defend against it in all of those areas. There is a large defensive Psychic research tree for you to unlock to help level the field against the Shakturi.
The Shakturi have also long been focused on “perfecting” their own forms and abilities and experiment relentlessly with Genetic Engineering to create better servants for themselves. You can follow their lead and research ways to improve your own species, to make your empire, ships and ground troops more powerful. The Shakturi are also busy creating and manufacturing new space creatures to unleash against you as well as influencing those that already exist to become hostile against all that are not in the Shaktur Axis. If you want to be able to better counter the Shakturi influence over these creatures, this is where you should focus your research.



Biowarfare gives the Shakturi the ability to design and unleash plagues of various kinds to weaken and prepare other factions for conquest, including making them more susceptible to Psychic influence and control. This area of research will allow you to cure those plagues, saving many millions of your empire’s population and making them a harder target for the Shakturi. You may also be able to design and deploy some plagues of your own, specifically targeted against the Shakturi. Take care though as Biowarfare often leads to unintended consequences.
The Shakturi endgame crisis progresses through various stages, culminating with a massive Alliance vs. Alliance war between the Shaktur Axis and the Freedom Alliance for control of the galaxy. Depending on your choices, you may end up helping the Freedom Alliance, the Shakturi Axis or trying to stay neutral (or fighting against both!). Good luck!

To make that final war more epic, Return of the Shakturi also comes packed with Planet Destroyers and Mega Ships. Each faction in the game, including those added post-release (with the exception of the Ikkuro, they’ll get something special post-release), will now have access to a special Mega Ship. Most of them act as Planet Destroyers and since the Shakturi will bring their own Planet Destroyers, it’s good to have an equivalent counter if you need it. Some are different though and I’ll review those below. These mega ships will also now be available separate from that endgame crisis in normal gameplay, as long as you have the Return of the Shakturi expansion.


Humans: Planet Destroyer with a Super Mass Driver weapon



Ackdarians: Planet Destroyer with a Super Beam weapon



Mortalen: Planet Destroyer with a Super Mass Driver weapon



Haakonish: Mega Ship with a Massive Gravitic Pulse weapon



Teekan: Mega Ship with a Massive Ion Bomb weapon



Boskara: Planet Destroyer with a Super Firestorm Torpedo weapon



Zenox: Stealthy Mega Ship with Super Long Range Sensors (a mobile Stealth Mega Monitoring Station which can fight)



Dhayut: Planet Destroyer with a Super Beam weapon



Quameno: Mega Ship with a Mobile Robotic Troop Foundry



Gizurean: Planet Destroyer with a Super Beam weapon


In the next blog, we’ll talk more about Outposts, the new multi-Empire Alliances and the space-based start option for your civilization, which are additional new features included in this expansion.

Wish list now:
Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2926560/Distant_Worlds_2_Return_of_the_Shakturi/

[Asid]

Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi - Dev Log #2
Fri, 27 September 2024



Expanding Horizons


Refugees, Outposts and Alliances



Hello everyone.  This is the second of three Developer Blogs we’ll be doing in the lead up to the release of Return of the Shakturi, the first feature expansion for Distant Worlds 2. 

In the first one, we focused on the Shakturi story and their unique abilities as well as the Mega Ships and Planet Destroyers.  In this one, we’ll focus on some of the additional unique new features which are part of the Return of the Shakturi expansion, specifically Outposts, multi-Empire Alliances and the Refugee start option.
The third and final blog will cover some additional features and improvements that are coming as part of the work on Return of the Shakturi, but which will be released as part of a free update for all Distant Worlds 2 owners, along with the Return of the Shakturi release.
With Return of the Shakturi, you now get to experience what a proper endgame crisis in Distant Worlds 2 is like and what fighting against (or with) a major endgame threat like the Shakturi means for your empire.


Outposts are smaller than colonies with a maximum of 50 million of your empire’s citizens.  in exchange for this, they can be built on planets where you would not normally be able to put a colony, in other words very challenging and hostile environments.  Outposts will not grow, though if they lose population for whatever reason, they can accept new migrants up to their maximum population.  Outposts also don’t provide income – instead, they require funds from your empire to maintain the various life support systems that allow for survival on such harsh worlds.  The support cost of an Outpost increases as its planet’s suitability decreases.

What are they good for then? 

• Outposts allow you to claim territory in a way that stations do not.   Where you have an outposts, your empire’s borders will extend to cover it. 
• Outposts allow you to extend your colonization range to get to more suitable worlds that might otherwise be out of reach. 
• Outpost give your empire full benefits from any empire bonuses or unique resources found on their planet, which can give access to previously inaccessible ruin bonuses.
• Outposts allow you to build Terraforming Facilities.  This means that with Outposts, you can potentially bring a previously uncolonizable planet up to colony level.  Note however that worlds with very low base suitability now require a Terraforming Facility to remain on the planet in order to maintain the suitability improvements, but sometimes you just need some extra real estate.
• Outposts can be converted to colonies if their suitability is high enough, for a modest cost.

Return of the Shakturi includes a new multi-empire Alliance system.  During the Shakturi endgame crisis and story, this allows for the formation of the Shaktur Axis and the Freedom Alliance during that crisis to fight against each other in a war to the finish.  However, if you choose to turn off the Shakturi crisis, you’ll still get access to the Alliance system (in fact, much earlier as it won’t be gated behind the story events).


Alliances allow you to form a closer union with other empires.  Once Allied, you are guaranteed a certain baseline set of treaties and all wars become Alliance wars.  If someone attacks you, your Allies will join in your defense, but you can also Convene the Alliance to vote on declaring a combined war on another empire or to end an existing war.  While your empire is in an Alliance, there is no separate peace possible.

When you Convene your Alliance, you can also vote to Admit or Expel a member.  Note that the most powerful Alliance members will have more votes, but Admittance requires unanimity.  Joining or leaving an Alliance is a big choice, but surviving the galaxy without an Alliance can be a challenge as well!

Now let’s discuss the Refugee Start.

Many have asked for a space-based beginning to a civilization, with a single colony ship and a small fleet with which to find a new home.  This  “Refugee Fleet” start option will now be possible for those players who want a greater challenge.  You will have a choice of fleet size and starting tech level and once you found a new homeworld, you will be able to switch to a regular government type for your faction. 


When this start begins, you are fleeing a recent disaster which struck your homeworld and you are in a fairly dangerous part of the galaxy.  The population on your colony ship and passenger ships are all that remains of your people.  You will need to protect them at all costs against the many dangers on the way while trying to find a new home.  If you explore well enough, you may find more than just a new home!


Note that this start is best for experienced players who don’t mind difficult challenges or relying on manual play to get around problems.

In the next blog, we’ll talk about the many new features and improvements coming to the next official free update, thanks to the work on Return of the Shakturi.  Those includes better fleet attack coordination, an upgraded Enemy Targets list with multiple fleet mission types per target, improved AI use of all fleet mission types, a new wartime mission system (with unique Shakturi missions when playing through the Return of the Shakturi), new intelligence missions (Destroy Facility, Deploy Plague (Shakturi only), Capture Character), rebalanced colonization and economy systems and improved message and notification management.