Distant Worlds 2 - State of the Game and Update Roadmap

[Erik Rutins]

As of March 28th, 2022 v1.0.2.8

Hello to everyone in the Distant Worlds 2 community,

First, Elliot and I would like to thank all of our customers for your patience and your support since Distant Worlds 2 was released. For those who have experienced serious issues, we apologize and especially appreciate your understanding as we work to resolve these.

(TLDR: We are prioritizing Critical Issues, Performance Issues and Gameplay issues in that order. We will be putting more time into testing beta updates before they go official to avoid introducing new save or other problems. We will be switching to a slower update schedule to make additional testing possible and to improve the stability of official updates going forward.)

It’s clear, in hindsight, that while we had over 300 testers and DW2 was in alpha and beta testing for a year, we did not have a large enough testing pool to catch all critical issues related to hardware configurations. It’s also clear that despite the best efforts of a lot of very good volunteer testers, we didn’t achieve the level of polish that many of you expected at release.

Since release, we have been working overtime to address those issues preventing gameplay for some customers, while also addressing other serious issues affecting a wider range of players. This has resulted in fourteen new updates in the two or so weeks since release. These updates have fixed many crashes, performance issues and gameplay issues for many players.
Unfortunately, not all the critical issues are resolved (though many have been) and the pace of the updates has also created some serious new issues from time to time, including some save file problems in 1.0.2.2 and 1.0.2.6 that should not have made it to a public release.

While the urgency of getting DW2 working for everyone has been driving us to investigate and iterate as quickly as possible, it’s clear that we can’t maintain the pace of an update every day or two and it’s also clear that in that rush we have not allowed time for enough testing between releases. This is going to change going forward as I’ll explain below.

Priority #1 - Issues Preventing Gameplay

Our first priority remains resolving critical issues preventing gameplay for some customers. The most common of these remain frequent crashes (especially in battle) or crashes on startup or black screens on startup. In addition, we have issues where some very high end GPUs are trying to run DW2 while remaining in some kind of power-saving mode, thus causing much worse than expected performance, or where dual GPU systems are trying to run DW2 on the integrated rather than dedicated GPU to some degree, causing slowdowns and crashes.

We are working on all of these and have brought in Matrix/Slitherine’s Technical Director to work together with Elliot on some of these issues, especially those which appear to be at a lower level than most of the game code.

The main challenge and delay in resolving these has been the great difficulty in reproducing them. We are proceeding in two main directions right now. :

First, we are re-engineering how DW2 creates and manages vertex buffers, which appear to be at the core of many of the issues, especially with AMD GPUs and their drivers. The first iteration of vertex buffer changes is in 1.0.2.8 and we hope this will help many customers.

Second, we are working to improve the low level GPU identification and selection code to make sure that on systems with dual GPUs DW2 is always running on the correct one and that very high end GPUs no longer try to take a nap while DW2 is running. We expect efforts in this area to reach the public within about a week after this roadmap is posted.

Priority #2 - Performance

Our second priority has been performance and while this remains a high priority, we have already made major performance improvements for many systems in the last two weeks and we hope that resolving the remaining low level GPU issues will resolve most of the remaining performance concerns, where systems are above our minimum specifications and playing a reasonable galaxy size and resolution for their hardware.

It’s important to note that we also have seen instances where customers are running maximum size 2000 star galaxies on minimum specification hardware, which will likely never result in good performance, but performance across the board has seen significant improvements and that will continue. We also plan in the future to add more guidance in galaxy setup as to which galaxy sizes are recommended for systems closer to the lower end of the hardware specification and which are suitable for systems at the higher end.

There are also some concerns on certain systems regarding performance in nebulas, with certain map overlays and with the research screen which will need additional work if the low level fixes do not resolve these on all systems. If needed, we will address these more specific performance concerns after the general performance issues are resolved.

Priority #3 - Gameplay

Our third priority has been addressing major gameplay concerns, such as some espionage balance issues, some diplomacy issues and most recently fleet and ship coordination issues. We will be continuing to fit these in as we can and we expect the immediate priorities in this area to be as follows:

1. Further fleet and ship behavior polish, especially relating to interactions with manual orders and fuel tankers. This should be coming in the first beta update this week and hopefully be finished in the next official update.

2. Improve quality of live for manual players with regard to multi-selection of ships and the available orders and automation settings

3. Additional guidance in the UI on the cost of low suitability colonization and support costs for existing and new colonies

4. Improve pathing issues related to nebula storms as well as home systems being generated within nebulas This should also improve pathfinding issues that could in rare cases result in ridiculous paths around the galaxy.

5. Improve auto-design at certain tech levels and ship hull levels for certain ships, especially small troop transports, colony ships and fuel tankers, to make sure they have the necessary ion defenses, speed and range for their missions.

6. Address rare issues with messaging that could cause rapidly repeating/looping messages especially relating to story events and threats like the Hive and Planet Destroyer. Also improve message handling, especially regarding attack notification messages in the late game.

7. Resolve issues relating to some cases where the wrong race is chosen suitability-wise for colonization or migration

8. Polish Espionage and Diplomacy further. Adjust the Espionage difficulties to the desired range and to investigate and fix reported issues with some higher end treaty types.

9. Investigate the reports of issues with either automated stock maintain levels or freighter and passenger ship construction for the Private Sector to ensure all is working as intended. Some progress on this may already have been made in the 1.0.2.8 update.

10. Adjust the corruption scaling to avoid the situation, especially at difficulty settings above Normal, where large colony income could decrease as the colony approached maximum population.

There are also other reported gameplay issues beyond these top 10 which we will also address as we go forward, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but there are our initial goals.

Finally, let me discuss the new update schedule. This week we are releasing 1.0.2.8 as an official update today. Going forward, we plan to release beta updates on Thursdays on Steam and GOG and official update on all stores on certain Tuesdays. That may shift to a once every two week schedule as the most critical issues are resolved. This will not slow down our development, but it will allow us more time to test each beta update and make sure that as much as humanly possible, we’re only taking steps forward and no more steps back.

For those customers still affected by critical issues after 1.0.2.8, we’re sorry we couldn’t get every critical issue resolved yet with our quick updates to date, but know that you remain our highest priority and we won’t stop until we make sure every system within our minimum specifications is able to play DW2 as it was intended.

Thank you again if you took the time to read all of this and for those who have been unhappy with how DW2 has worked on their systems, please check in at least at the end of each week going forward and try the newest update to let us know if things have improved for you.

Sincerely,

Erik Rutins and Elliot Gibbs
Matrix Games and CodeForce

[GHerr]

Thanks for the hard work. To clarify priority 3.2. Does that include different designs using same ship hulls, for example multiple frigate designs in same fleet? Especially around refits?

[Beaglejack]

Hello Erik, thank you for the update and the roadmap. May I volunteer to test future content? I currently have a retail copy of the game and would be interested in helping out as I enjoy the game and the vision. It was recommended on Reddit that I post here and make a request:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DistantWorlds/ ... ame=iossmf

[OrnluWolfjarl]

Hey, thanks for all the hard work that went into this, and especially thanks for being dedicated at fixing the issues after release! I love the game so far. Despite its problems, I appreciate the vision, the complexity, its innovation and its improvements over DWU.

[MichaelJ007]

Thank you. Great game.

No offense, but the first few paragraphs is pretty boilerplate. Been seeing it in too many game launches recently. But I do accept the sentiment.

The crashes have been awful, but appreciate your obvious efforts at addressing them.

Last thing, bugs and balancing is just par for the course, so no worries there. Confident it will be addressed. But some design decisions are questionable. Like the whole Fleet template and fleet management system is just terrible and yet it's the major part of the game you interact with as a player. I hope this area gets a serious revamp.

Missing functionality here which should have been standard include multi selecting ships in fleets, merging fleets, dealing with multiple ship designs within a template and fleet, having clear upgrade paths, being able to queue orders, especially for explorers.

Army management is also week, as it's impossible to specify specific garrison sizes, and moving troops between colonies is painful.

[arvcran2]

This is an excellent communication!

[Erik Rutins]

Hello Erik, thank you for the update and the roadmap. May I volunteer to test future content? I currently have a retail copy of the game and would be interested in helping out as I enjoy the game and the vision. It was recommended on Reddit that I post here and make a request:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DistantWorlds/ ... ame=iossmf

Hi Beaglejack,

Going forward, we'll be making our beta builds publicly available as soon as they are ready on Steam and GOG, so the best way to help is to try the beta branches there as soon as they go live and report any changes or issues you see.

Regards,

- Erik

[actrade]

Erik,

Are betas only going on Steam/GOG, or will Matrix post them as well?

[idrismakesgames]

Hi Erik,

RE:

#3 2. Improve quality of live for manual players with regard to multi-selection of ships and the available orders and automation settings

Does this include individual ship queue orders? would massively improve manual play, but understand if the complexity of that is hard to prioritise this early post launch.

Hope you, Eliot and team are looking after yourselves too, sounds like you are burning it at both ends and hope you are able to take some time to also celebrate the release soon enough.

[Erik Rutins]

Are betas only going on Steam/GOG, or will Matrix post them as well?

Betas will only be on Steam/GOG to decrease the load on our operations team while we are still iterating quickly, but all Matrix customers are provided a free Steam key which they can use to try the beta versions.

[Erik Rutins]

Does this include individual ship queue orders? would massively improve manual play, but understand if the complexity of that is hard to prioritise this early post launch.

Not initially as it is a complex feature to add, but I do expect we will get to that eventually. We're focusing initially on everything we can do UI-wise to improve the manual playstyle in DW2 within the next month or two alongside the other priorities I mentioned.

Hope you, Eliot and team are looking after yourselves too, sounds like you are burning it at both ends and hope you are able to take some time to also celebrate the release soon enough.

Thanks, we're doing the best we can to switch from sprint to marathon mode here.

[actrade]

Are betas only going on Steam/GOG, or will Matrix post them as well?

Betas will only be on Steam/GOG to decrease the load on our operations team while we are still iterating quickly, but all Matrix customers are provided a free Steam key which they can use to try the beta versions.

Understood, although I don't think it's such a good idea to push Matrix customers to the steam platform for content you can't get on Matrix.

[SgtBootStrap]

Matrix customers are provided a free Steam key which they can use to try the beta versions.

Understood, although I don't think it's such a good idea to push Matrix customers to the steam platform for content you can't get on Matrix.

Matrix does War. A look at Inventory would suggest. Push...? Why does a Caddy carry a Bag? LOL! Sorry, I will not explain... ")
OMG!

[jaweknee530]

State of the game: bad

[R_TEAM]

Are betas only going on Steam/GOG, or will Matrix post them as well?

Betas will only be on Steam/GOG to decrease the load on our operations team while we are still iterating quickly, but all Matrix customers are provided a free Steam key which they can use to try the beta versions.

Understood, although I don't think it's such a good idea to push Matrix customers to the steam platform for content you can't get on Matrix.

100%
have bought the game on Matrix to NOT have steam online/active ....
If i end up to force to use steam anyway - then i have doing it wrong and pay more for nothing ....
So we know now - better buy on steam - it is cheaper and up-to-date ......

[Erik Rutins]

Are betas only going on Steam/GOG, or will Matrix post them as well?

Betas will only be on Steam/GOG to decrease the load on our operations team while we are still iterating quickly, but all Matrix customers are provided a free Steam key which they can use to try the beta versions.

Understood, although I don't think it's such a good idea to push Matrix customers to the steam platform for content you can't get on Matrix.

I would prefer not to as well, but it's necessary for now. In the longer-term, we'll have betas here as well, but the fourteen updates in the last three weeks mean the Ops team needs a little break and knowing that all customers CAN access Steam (they certainly may choose not to) it's a reasonable decision for now. We expect the beta builds to be less stable as a rule, so they are more for testing than stable play and should be followed by an official update (here at Matrix) within a few days after the beta.

[Erik Rutins]

100%
have bought the game on Matrix to NOT have steam online/active ....
If i end up to force to use steam anyway - then i have doing it wrong and pay more for nothing ....
So we know now - better buy on steam - it is cheaper and up-to-date ......

No one is forcing you to use a beta and the gap between betas and officials should only be a few days. Once we get through the more rapid iterations, we'll also have betas here again.

Regards,

- Erik

[rxnnxs]

Thank you for this exhaustive list and your intense work. Sure, it is your job, but do not forget your family and your carbon bag filled with mostly water and brain.
Take your time and maybe you ask AMD?

On behalf of the ship queuing, it would be a great help, and I hope understood it correct it is in your road map mentioned, multiple selection of ships and changing the auto Mode will be implemented.

Please lay every auto mode onto a bindable key and also give us the option to let the ship stay on auto, even when giving manual orders.

As well as a message saying that tasks have been done.
This could be done easier than a queue.
And in top of it, please tell us when we lost a ship.

Do please not forget to fine tune the galactopedia and the context sensitive help.
It needs also more info. I.e. the information that the filter option in the message log also controls the pop up messages itself.

Regarding ship speeds, (vector) engine usage, or the power/fuel bars for every ship. Right now there are only numbers, no units. I.e. M/s, Litres/qm/m^3 shield strength. There should be a little bit of fine tuning regarding explanation of the bars in a first glance.

popupshelp.jpg (8.63 KiB) Viewed 6874 times

There could also be a help popup be quite useful.
And regarding the pop up, a delay would be nice.

Plus here, an overview about some ship stats that are interesting but right now only shown in the design editor.
Shown are right now weapons and damaged components, but the actual energy usage and taking in the calculation the damaged components and on this basis showing speed, weapon power usage and such when hovering over energy/fuel bars.

something like that.jpg (153.13 KiB) Viewed 6874 times

Also the calculation where the center of the 3D-View is. If some side windows are opened but the estimated middle of the view lays behind those open windows, it makes no sense.

center view.jpg (256.43 KiB) Viewed 6874 times

Whilke talking about that, there is another calculation flaw regarding objects in the view:
When taking into account what is shown in the quick selection bar, objects are taken into account that are not in the view. It feels like the rectangle, where the objects are taken from, is not the actual screen size.
The objects taken into account should reflect the actual screen size.

outside.jpg (10.04 KiB) Viewed 6874 times

I am looking forward and again thank you for this great game

and..

I almost forgot, thank you for the price Discount on gog for distant worlds 1 as well as polaris sector these days.
They both are great games!

[deMangler]

Even though I do a lot of testing I can't really supply helpful bug reports because I have quite specific unsupported setups.
However I will find the open betas very useful so thanks for that.
BTW, playing on GeForce Now has been excellent for a few versions now, and linux play has improved loads lately.
Thanks for all the work and the great game.

[zgrssd]

Priority #3 - Gameplay

Our third priority has been addressing major gameplay concerns, such as some espionage balance issues, some diplomacy issues and most recently fleet and ship coordination issues. We will be continuing to fit these in as we can and we expect the immediate priorities in this area to be as follows:

1. Further fleet and ship behavior polish, especially relating to interactions with manual orders and fuel tankers. This should be coming in the first beta update this week and hopefully be finished in the next official update.

2. Improve quality of live for manual players with regard to multi-selection of ships and the available orders and automation settings

3. Additional guidance in the UI on the cost of low suitability colonization and support costs for existing and new colonies

4. Improve pathing issues related to nebula storms as well as home systems being generated within nebulas This should also improve pathfinding issues that could in rare cases result in ridiculous paths around the galaxy.

5. Improve auto-design at certain tech levels and ship hull levels for certain ships, especially small troop transports, colony ships and fuel tankers, to make sure they have the necessary ion defenses, speed and range for their missions.

6. Address rare issues with messaging that could cause rapidly repeating/looping messages especially relating to story events and threats like the Hive and Planet Destroyer. Also improve message handling, especially regarding attack notification messages in the late game.

7. Resolve issues relating to some cases where the wrong race is chosen suitability-wise for colonization or migration

8. Polish Espionage and Diplomacy further. Adjust the Espionage difficulties to the desired range and to investigate and fix reported issues with some higher end treaty types.

9. Investigate the reports of issues with either automated stock maintain levels or freighter and passenger ship construction for the Private Sector to ensure all is working as intended. Some progress on this may already have been made in the 1.0.2.8 update.

10. Adjust the corruption scaling to avoid the situation, especially at difficulty settings above Normal, where large colony income could decrease as the colony approached maximum population.

There are also other reported gameplay issues beyond these top 10 which we will also address as we go forward, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but there are our initial goals.

I am particulary interested in 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 and can not wait which of them will be fixed in the Thursday beta.