Hello everyone. This is the second of two Developer Blogs covering strategy after the release of Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi. 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 goal of these blogs will be to pull back the curtain a bit on the Shakturi crisis and help you figure out how to defeat these terrifying arch-enemies. If you don’t want any spoilers regarding the story, you should stop here. If you’d rather try for one of the other two endings, either joining the Shakturi and helping them win or staying out of both the Shakturi Axis and the Freedom Alliance, we’ll mention those only briefly. Our focus will be on how to stop the Shakturi conquering the galaxy.
Genetic Engineering We discussed the importance of the Genetic engineering research tree in Part 1 when it comes to countering Shakturi influence on the Rift Striders and other space creatures. However, there’s a second part to this tree which gives you the opportunity to make some notable improvements to your empire. You can improve your troops, your militia, your ship crews and marines, your leaders and your population growth. While these are less direct counters to the problems posed by the Shakturi, if time allows they can add up to a significant boost for your forces.
The Ancient Guardians Soon after the Shakturi emerge from the rifts, you will detect some anomalous magnetic pulses. Investigating these will allow you to make contact with the only remaining fully functional Ancient Guardian artificial intelligence. The Ancient Guardians may even pre-date the previous war against the Shakturi and have been preserving information that is critical to your war efforts. They will give you the location of a map which will lead you to three special vaults, the Vaults of Creation, Aggression and Concealment. Exploring and opening these vaults before others can will give a special boost in countering the Shakturi advantages. I recommend prioritizing these as soon as you have the opportunity.
The Ancient Guardians will be reluctant to reveal the location of their final vault until the Shakturi bring in their first reinforcement fleet with a Planet Destroyer. Note that the frequency of Shakturi reinforcement fleets depends on the number of beacons the Shakturi control, so the timing will vary from game to game and of course if you take out some of their beacons that will buy you some time.
Either way, once a Shakturi Planet Destroyer arrives in the galaxy, the Ancient Guardians will reveal to you their final most hidden and most dangerous vault – the Vault of the Shakturi Mind.
The sooner you can open this vault, the better. Contained within are two key areas of knowledge. The first is the knowledge to build Mega-Ships like Planet Destroyers. You will get access to two projects once you open the vault. The first is for the special Mega-Ship hull, the second for a special weapon or other component for the Mega-Ship. These will vary depending on the faction you are playing. These projects will start mostly researched thanks to the knowledge in the Vault.
Being able to field Mega-Ships and possibly Planet Destroyers of your own can prove to be a decisive leveler against the Shakturi. Planet Destroyers are the quickest way to take out the Shakturi Beacons, but you’ll need to use them carefully. Mega-Ships are best used manually for best results, coordinating with your automated fleets to provide them cover and clear defenses before sending them in. Even if you don’t normally design your own ships, you may want to choose your own Mega-Ship design to make sure it has all the capabilities you want it to have. Once a Planet Destroyer arrives at a location with a target, it takes time to charge up its weapon and while these are huge and tough ships, they are not meant to take on entire fleets by themselves and do require some coordination and support. Some Mega-Ships, like those of the Zenox or Quameno, are not about destroying planets at all but give you other unique capabilities to help you hold the line.
The second and most terrible secret revealed in the final vault is the information required to engineer the Xaraktor Virus. This is the only virus known to be targeted at the Shakturi. When you first gain access to research it, understand that it starts out quite dangerous to all living beings. If you have time to develop it further before deploying it, you will find that the improved versions becomes less dangerous to all except the Shakturi. The improved Xaraktor viruses become so dangerous to the Shakturi that a single outbreak could wipe out most of their population if deployed to the right world. The Xaraktor Virus and Planet Destroyers are both weapons of desperation for the Freedom Alliance, but if you see no other path to the defeat of the Shakturi, it’s better to have these last ditch options than to not have them. If you fail to open the Vault of the Shakturi Mind, the Ancient Guardians will eventually distribute this information as the Shakturi continue to rampage through the galaxy, but years of time will be lost waiting for that to happen which you could have used to build those Mega-Ships, so don’t delay!
Alternate Paths If you choose not to fight against the Shatkuri, there are two other options. First, you could join with the Shakturi and try to become part of the Shaktur Axis. If you do this, you will have a very powerful ally indeed, but realize that you will never be seen by the Shakturi as an equal. Within the Shaktur Axis alliance, they get the only deciding vote. If you join them, they’ll share the knowledge of the cure for the Psionic Virus with you and the Rift Striders will not focus their attention on you. They’ll also eventually share the knowledge of Mega-Ships with you so you can build your own to help them. For the Shakturi Axis, the simple goal is conquest of the galaxy. You just need to get your victory score high enough by having the most population, worlds and the largest economy in order to win. Second, you may decide that your path is a neutral one. If you don’t join the Freedom Alliance or the Shaktur Axis, you will be looking to make sure neither of them win and they remain locked in a stalemate allowing your empire and other neutral empires to survive independently. In this case, the Ancient Guardians will eventually share the knowledge of Mega-Ships with you as well in order to fortify all non-Shakturi aligned factions, though you’ll get them later than the Freedom Alliance would get access to them unless you can find and open the Vault of the Shakturi Mind without help from the Ancient Guardians. Your goal is to survive long enough while preventing both the Shaktur Axis and the Freedom Alliance winning before enough years have passed. Good luck, this can be quite tough to achieve!
I hope you enjoy your experiences with the Shakturi Crisis, whatever way you choose to play it. Please stay tuned for more information in early 2025 about our plans for the next Distant Worlds 2 release!
Welcome back explorers, the Maintenance Update, the latest major update for Distant Worlds 2, is out now and ready for you to discover.
This major update is mainly focused on fixing issues that have been reported since the release of the Return of the Shakturi expansion, but also includes many other improvements, especially in the areas of Diplomacy, Fleet and Ship Behavior, UI and AI automation.
This update also improves modding support for those using Harmony modding for localization and should make easier localization for languages with larger and special character sets much easier.
But that's not all. For those of you who want to know every detail of the Maintenance update, a detailed changelog is available at this link
Hello everyone. Don't miss today's livestream at 15:00 CET, where an intrestisting preview of the upcoming Maintenance Update, set to release on December 5th. Tune in to learn more.
This is the first of two Developer Blogs we’ll be doing as we get close to releasing the first official update after the release of Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi. We’ve seen feedback after the release that you are all enjoying the new Shakturi endgame 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. A few of you have already managed to defeat the Shakturi, many others are still trying and some have found them to be too much of a challenge. The goal of these blogs will be to pull back the curtain a bit on the Shakturi crisis and help you figure out how to defeat these terrifying arch-enemies. If you don’t want any spoilers regarding the story, you should stop here. If you’d rather try for one of the other two endings, either joining the Shakturi and helping them win or staying out of both the Shakturi Axis and the Freedom Alliance, we’ll mention those only briefly. Our focus will be on how to stop the Shakturi conquering the galaxy.
Shakturi Appearance Timing We’ll start with the most straightforward advice. If you are finding the Shakturi to be too challenging, the first step is to adjust their entry time. The Shakturi entry is primarily based on the tech progress of the galaxy as well as the player’s tech progress. In either case, if you or the galaxy have advanced far enough, the Shakturi crisis will begin. For each step you delay their entry, you’ll gain more time to prepare for them. Keep mind that there is also a good amount of time (many years) between the beginning of the crisis and the full Shaktur Axis vs. Freedom Alliance war.
Rifts Destabilize When the rifts first destabilize, you are given the opportunity to research the first two Psychic techs – Paranormal Studies and Psychic Energy Detection. Completing these before the story advances further can buy you on average 5 more years to prepare for the arrival of the Shakturi as you slow down their attempt to fully open the rifts. I recommend you always research these two when they become available.
Rift Striders Emerge The first things to actually come out of the rifts are the Rift Striders. There is a massive initial wave, then a smaller amount over time until the rifts fully open and the Shakturi emerge. Once the Shakturi emerge, no further Rift Striders will come through the rifts. Fighting and destroying the Rift Striders will give you two new resources required to begin progressing the Genetic Research and Biowarfare tech trees immediately but be careful about fighting them at the rift unless your fleets are very strong as they initially arrive in large numbers.
Researching these initial Genetic Engineering and Biowarfare technologies will give you some information about what you’re dealing with and also a head start on the later techs you will need to get an edge, but the main priority with the Rift Striders is to destroy as many as you can. The Rift Striders act as eyes for the Shakturi who are still trapped in Riftspace. All locations the Rift Striders visit, the Shakturi will have knowledge of once they emerge. If you can keep the Rift Striders relatively contained, it will slow down the Shakturi when they seek the beacons (more on that below).
At this time, the other space creatures, under Shakturi influence, will also start to focus on attacking non-Shakturi systems and stations. Interstellar Biology Studies will lead you to the necessary techs to reverse this Shakturi influence and return the creatures to their normal migration and attack patterns, which will make them less of a nuisance. Loosening the Shakturi control over the Rift Striders will take multiple projects, but as the Shakturi can manufacture these once they are established, it may be worth your while if you are finding them a nuisance. Even one level of counter-influence can lead to some of the Rift Striders resisting Shakturi influence and attacking the Shakturi themselves.
Shakturi Psionic Virus The Rift Striders also spread the Shakturi Psionic Virus in all systems they visit with inhabited worlds. There is initially no cure for the Shakturi Psionic Virus and it can greatly disrupt the happiness of worlds as well as cause casualties. Moreover, the Shakturi Psionic Virus, if active on a world, makes it more susceptible to Shakturi psychic abilities. The best way to prepare your empire for this is to research enough general Medical and Happiness technologies to mitigate the effects. If you get those early Xenobiological Studies and Xenobiological Investigations techs research before the Shakturi arrive, then you will only need Biowarfare and Plague Curing to get access to the cure for the basic Shakturi Psionic Virus which will greatly decrease its overall effectiveness. Note that the Shakturi can also research more advanced versions of the Psionic Virus, but you can also research new cures to match the new variants.
Shakturi Emerge Once the Shakturi emerge from the Rifts, they will head to their buried Beacon worlds at the rim of the galaxy. Usually there are 2-4 of these and once they find them, they will start repairing them and eventually open new wormholes to their home galaxy to bring in reinforcements. The Shakturi at this point are strong, but not as strong as they will become and if you can manage to destroy their beacons you will be able to achieve an early victory before they become a larger threat. The beacons themselves are almost immune to bombardment. You can try to destroy them with spies (very low chance) or invade and conquer the beacon worlds, which triggers an event chain allowing you to figure out how to destroy them from the surface. Finally, if you’ve actually managed to repair and control the one ancient planet destroyer that’s available in the pre-crisis galaxy, you could also use that to destroy the beacon planets.
Shakturi Archives Assuming the Shakturi repair and activate the beacons, there will be a brief opportunity to get access to the Shakturi Archives. When the beacons activate there will be an echo of sorts back to them from three nearby locations. If you can explore these before the Shakturi gain control of them, you can recover some additional knowledge which will be useful against the Shakturi. If you don’t move quickly, this opportunity will be lost as the Archives are also of interest to the Shakturi.
Shakturi Supremacy Once the beacons are repaired and the wormholes form, a few more years will pass until the first Shakturi vanguard fleet arrives with massive worldships and more warships. At this point, the Shakturi will establish themselves as a full empire and start using psychically-enhanced diplomacy and intelligence missions to sway other empires to their side, which will lead to the formation of the Shaktur Axis. This is a good time to make sure you’ve researched Psychic Defense Fields, Psychic Resistance Training and Mind Shields to reduce the effects of the Shakturi Psychic capabilities against you in both space and ground combat and diplomacy and espionage. It’s especially important to have those Psychic Shields on all your combat ships and some resistance to psychic attacks for your ground troops.
Note that the more Shakturi there are in the galaxy, the more psychic energy they will have to spend on these abilities. That means keeping the Shakturi population under control is helpful in and of itself. Keep working on diplomacy with the other empires and trying to get what successes you can against the Shakturi designs. It will help with the next stage.
Shaktur Axis and Freedom Alliance At some point, the Shakturi will form the Shaktur Axis. They always approach the Boskara first and there’s an opportunity for you to disrupt that, but at a great cost. Even if you invest in this, it will only delay the inevitable. Eventually the Shaktur Axis will form, with the strongest factions the Shakturi were able to influence to their side. If you were successful in thwarting the Shakturi diplomatic and intelligence efforts, you may be fortunate to get a weaker Shaktur Axis (though they can add more empires later as well). The Freedom Alliance will form a bit later in response. If you want to make sure you are part of it, try to maintain close relationships with as many of the less warlike empires as possible, especially any Humans, Ackdarians and Zenox who tend to be the alliance organizers. Then be sure to respond affirmatively to the story events that give you the opportunity to be part of its formation. The more positive relationships you have, the better the chance you’ll form a strong Freedom Alliance. As with the Shaktur Axis, you can continue to work to bring more empires onboard after the initial formation.
The Final War Shortly after this, the final war against the Shakturi will start, which involves a switch in victory conditions. Note that for the Freedom Alliance, you now have two main goals. The first is to preserve your own worlds, population and economy to keep a high baseline contribution to your victory. The second is to pursue as many War Missions as possible to generate additional contributions to your victory score so that you can get to 100%. The most rewarding War Missions to convince the Shakturi they cannot win and must leave the galaxy are as follows:
Destroy a Shakturi Beacon: +15%
Destroy or Capture a Shakturi Planet Destroyer: +10%
Capture a Shakturi character: +5%
Research a key counter-tech against the Shakturi: +5%
You’ll need to balance defense and offense to accomplish these before the Shakturi weaken your alliance enough to make the goal impossible.
In the next blog, we’ll discuss the Ancient Guardians and their special Vaults, Planet Destroyers, Genetic Engineering, the Xaraktor Virus and the option of joining the Shakturi or remaining non-aligned.
On December 5th we will release a major update that is mainly focused on fixing issues that have been reported since the release of the Return of the Shakturi expansion, but also includes many other improvements, especially in the areas of Diplomacy, Fleet and Ship Behavior, UI and AI automation. This update also improves modding support for those using Harmony modding for localization and should make easier localization for languages with larger and special character sets much easier.
Key highlights:
Many fixes, tweaks and improvements to the Shakturi Crisis
Many UI improvements, especially to help manage facilities, outposts, ruins and migration
Overhaul of Diplomacy trade valuations as well as improvements to AI management of Ambassadors
Significant improvements to fleet and ship behavior, especiall involving dangerous locations, defense fleets and starfighters
Empire background tasks now better prioritized especially for lower performance systems or the largest galaxies
Tourism income and logic rebalance
Improved localization support for localization mods for languages with larger and special character sets (the Chinese mod was used as a case study for this)
An issue that could prevent all sound and visual effects playing has been fixed, which makes battles look and sound better than they have in a while
Distant Worlds 2: how much has it improved over the last 24 months
The ongoing and continuous support for Distant Worlds 2 reflects the passion and commitment of Slitherine and CodeForce to support the fans who believed in this galactic project from day one.
On October 24th, Slitherine and CodeForce launched Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi, marking the debut of the first feature expansion for Distant Worlds 2. This release has been met with an overwhelmingly positive reception, reflecting the community's enthusiasm and excitement. On day one it had 100% of positive reviews, within a week, reviews have remained consistently high, up to 88%, and the ratings for the base game have risen to 76%.
Since the base game was released, performance and compatibility have improved thanks to numerous multi-threading optimizations, and both Artificial Intelligence and User Interface have progressed significantly. Slitherine released two Faction DLCs introducing the Ikkuro, Dhayut, Gizureans and Quameno. Also, the Return of the Shakturi expansion brings an Endgame Crisis storyline with a very dangerous new enemy along with Outposts, multi-empire Alliances and several new research areas.
In addition to the content from the three DLCs released so far, if a player who purchased Distant Worlds 2 on day one in March 2022 were to reinstall the game today, they would discover numerous new features and updates. We asked our developers at CodeForce to summarize them below:
Much better economic, sustainability, and terraforming balance and scaling through the mid- and late-game.
Greatly expanded and enhanced Hive mid-game threat, as well as improved Pirates in the early game.
New repeatable, top-tier research projects to extend gameplay.
Massively improved performance and compatibility.
Major improvements to AI - including more detailed AI policies and improved automation and behavior for most areas of the game, especially fleets, ships, economic management, colonization, research, ship design, population management and diplomacy.
Major User Interface improvements, ranging from new camera modes, map overlays and message centers (with far more message filters) to distance measurement tools, additional list multi-select capabilities, more hotkeys, a greatly improved Enemy Targets list, better text formatting for all messages, additional filters on various empire tabs, more tooltips guidance and better UI scaling.
Expanded modding, including Steam Workshop support and an in-game Mod Manager, greatly improved mod loading and priority/conflict management.
Improved per-Hull Ship Design with new Component Policies for ship design automation guidance, defined upgrade paths for each Ship Design and improved Fleet Templates to include per hull fleet definitions and more fleet management options.
Much better Economic, Suitability and Terraforming balance and scaling through the mid and late games, including many improvements to resource logistics and private sector operations.
Two faction refreshes for base game factions (Humans and Mortalen) to bring their gameplay up to the level of the DLC factions, with more on the way until all base game factions are updated (Zenox and Boskara are next)!
Greatly expanded and improved Hive mid-game threat as well as improving Pirates in the early game, including adding a Pirate Cruiser!
New Repeatable top tier Research Projects for continuing gameplay alongside other improvements, adjustments and rebalances to most of the research tree.
As noted by the prestigious Softpedia, the strength of Distant Worlds 2 lies in the ability to forge a vast intergalactic empire, giving the player the freedom to choose what aspects of their empire to control: “The game remains impressive when it comes to how much it simulates and how good it is at surfacing information while giving players ways to only deal with mechanics they care about”.
We’re thrilled by the warm reception of the expansion from fans, with thousands of visits to the Steam page and content creators from across the gaming world. Here are a few multilingual examples of how some of the top Twitch and YouTube creators in the strategy games niche have enjoyed Distant Worlds 2 and the new DLC.
Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi is out now
Welcome back explorers, an ancient evil is returned to the vast universe of Distant Worlds 2. The wait is over. The Return of the Shakturi, the third DLC and first feature expansion for Distant Worlds 2, is now available. Also, don't miss the game showcase with Erik Rutins, producer and co-designer of Distant Worlds 2, following the release of The Return of the Shakturi.
Distant Worlds 2: Return Of The Shakturi Out Now
DISTANT WORLDS 2: RETURN OF THE SHAKTURI IS OUT NOW
Welcome back explorers, an ancient evil is returned to the vast universe of Distant Worlds 2. The wait is over. The Return of the Shakturi, the third DLC and first feature expansion for Distant Worlds 2, is now available.
The Shakturi, a sinister alien faction, nearly destroyed the galaxy in a past cataclysm. Originating from another galaxy, they possess abilities beyond normal understanding. Their return poses a dire threat, challenging even the strongest late-game empires.
It is now your choice whether to ally with them or fight them. Key Features:
Genetic Engineering in the game introduces a brand-new space creature and allows the Shakturi to manufacture these creatures for scouting and combat. It also grants the Shakturi influence over existing space creatures in the galaxy, enabling them to use these creatures to further their own goals.
Biowarfare enables the Shakturi to deploy plagues that weaken other factions, making them more susceptible to Psychic influence and control.
Psychic Abilities enhance the Shakturi's effectiveness in space and ground combat, diplomacy, espionage, and research. Countering these abilities requires innovative strategies that could potentially turn the Shakturi's strengths into weaknesses.
Planet Destroyers and Mega Ships are powerful tools available to all factions, including those introduced post-release. These formidable assets are crucial in battles against the Shakturi, with Mega Ships offering unique functionalities, such as the Quameno Mobile Robotic Troop Foundry.
New Space Creature – The Rift Strider introduces fresh challenges and opportunities within the game.
Outposts allow factions to establish a presence on worlds unsuitable for full colonization, securing valuable territory for future expansion.
The Multi-Empire Alliance System introduces new ways to coordinate and cooperate with allies, enhancing strategic collaboration across empires.
New Space-based start with just a single colony ship and a small fleet.
Ancient Guardian Vaults and Special Artifacts add depth to exploration and gameplay.
“STRATEGY” UPDATE
But that’s not all. Together with the DLC, we are releasing a new official update, free for all. The Strategy Update includes months of improvements made to support the Return of the Shakturi feature expansion, with a specific focus on refining player and AI management of mid to late game conflicts. We will continue to update, fix, and improve the base game to give the best possible gaming experience. For those of you who want to know every detail of the Strategy Update, a detailed changelog is available at this link.
Also, don't miss today's showcase on Twitch with Erik Rutins, producer and co-designer of Distant Worlds 2, following the release of The Return of the Shakturi.
Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi - Dev Log #3
Ongoing Evolution
War Management, War Missions, and Economic Balance Hello everyone. This is the third of three Developer Blogs we’re 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 the second, we covered Outposts, multi-Empire Alliances and the Refugee start option, which are unique new features exclusive to Return of the Shakturi. This final blog covers several additional features and improvements which will be released as part of a free update for all Distant Worlds 2 owners, along with the Return of the Shakturi release. You can already see a preview of these by opting into the Beta branch on Steam and GOG right now and trying the latest public beta update (though be aware, public betas are not always as stable as official releases). 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. First, let’s discuss the new tools you will have in the upcoming official update to make war management easier, especially in the late game.
The first of the major features is a greatly expanded Enemy Targets list. As you may know, this list allows the player to review all kinds of possible targets, from mining and research stations to colonies and fleets. In the past, you could queue a target or not queue it and the automation tried to take care of the rest using any available automated fleets. In addition, for performance reasons only the closer and more important targets were available through the list – the rest had to be manually attacked. Moreover, automated fleets had other competing priorities which could sometimes delay the execution of queued player targets. These were all clear limitations, but it was the best we could do at the time. Now, we have expanded this to include every applicable attack mission type for each type of target and improved the AI to be able to fully handle each of these and intelligently coordinate automated fleets to do so. Also, during a War, you will now always see ALL targets for any empires with which you are at war. For example, for a colony world, you could choose “Clear Defenses”, “Bombard”, “Invade”, “Raid” or “Blockade”. Each of these will be enabled if a suitable fleet is available for the mission and if queued, will be the top priority for available automated fleets to execute.
For example, if you queue an Invasion, you may find that an available automated attack fleet joins in to Clear Defenses or Bombard to make sure the invasion fleet has an easier task. You can also queue these supporting orders yourself and the assigned fleets will do their best to coordinate their attack. Similarly, you may “Attack”, “Capture”, “Raid” or “Blockade” a station instead of just attacking it. Every available target is also highlighted on the galaxy map and when you hover over a target, it pings the location for you. Being able to queue specific missions for targets through your Enemy Targets list is a real help when it comes to managing your fleets during wartime. It’s also important to emphasize that the AI can also perform all these missions and will use them against you in a coordinated fashion. A strong AI empire is now a much more challenging opponent than they were in earlier updates. Also, in terms of friendly AI empires, when you have a queued target, if your allies have available fleets in range, they may now join in to assist you provided they are also part of the same war. As a final point, if a target is associated with a War Mission (more on those below) it will have a special symbol to highlight it in your list.
War missions are an entirely new system which includes special unique story-related missions as part of the Shakturi DLC, but also includes more generic missions which are now a part of all wars with or without the Shakturi. War missions represent your advisors informing you of a key target or opportunity which may help with the outcome of the war. Completing a war mission within the allotted time can help your War Score, provide boosts to Empire Happiness or reduce War Weariness as well as other rewards and can increase enemy War Weariness. As the AI looks at the War Score and War Weariness in determining when a war is won or lost and on what terms, completing War Missions can help bring a war to a successful conclusion more quickly or allow you to hang on a bit longer in a war you are otherwise losing. There is a new policy setting which allows you to turn off War Missions for your empire, and receive them as suggestions that may be declined (the default setting – if you decline a mission, your advisors will offer another mission option every six months or so) or automatically accept any offered war missions. In the example below, your advisors have located the enemy Science Academy and are recommending that it be destroyed. The planet with that facility has a special indicator on the enemy targets list and we’ve queued missions to Clear Defenses and Bombard the planet the hope that we will be able to destroy the facility. Our empire’s bombardment policy has been set to eliminate enemy troops and facilities to make sure the job gets done.
Perhaps you would prefer not to risk multiple fleets to bombard a well defended planet and incur the reputation cost of bombarding a populated world as well? We have two new intelligence missions coming as well and one of them allows you to Destroy a Facility. In the example below, while this is a risky mission, it gives us a chance of success at a much lower cost if it succeeds. You can also now try to Capture enemy characters or encourage them to Defect to your side.
Finally, we’ve also done a major rebalance of economies, planetary suitability and the colonization and terraforming research trees and facilities. We’ve rebalanced these areas with the goal of improving economic scaling through the mid-game and late-games, to avoid situations where there is so much income that it effectively removed economic choices. We also wanted to address the issue of some factions having far more available suitable planets than others. The result overall should be fewer initially suitable planets for colonization, a better balance between factions, and terraforming facilities which are less expensive but may require ongoing maintenance on lower quality worlds. The one remaining piece is an overhauled message and notification system to help reduce message spam and improve player awareness, especially during wartime. That will be revealed on release day – be sure to tune in for the Return of the Shakturi livestream and release on October 24th, 2024!
Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi - Dev Log #2
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.
Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi - Dev Log #1
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.
Perhaps you would prefer not to risk multiple fleets to bombard a well defended planet and incur the reputation cost of bombarding a populated world as well? We have two new intelligence missions coming as well and one of them allows you to Destroy a Facility. In the example below, while this is a risky mission, it gives us a chance of success at a much lower cost if it succeeds. You can also now try to Capture enemy characters or encourage them to Defect to your side.
Finally, we’ve also done a major rebalance of economies, planetary suitability and the colonization and terraforming research trees and facilities. We’ve rebalanced these areas with the goal of improving economic scaling through the mid-game and late-games, to avoid situations where there is so much income that it effectively removed economic choices. We also wanted to address the issue of some factions having far more available suitable planets than others. The result overall should be fewer initially suitable planets for colonization, a better balance between factions, and terraforming facilities which are less expensive but may require ongoing maintenance on lower quality worlds.
