Most informative Distant Worlds video yet. Too many other ones are the slow, methodical click and point to create your galaxy etc. The information and delivery of what you're providing is efficient and effective--and enjoyable. Thank you.
I only watched a few games, but I noticed a few things they had in common. Early ships and tech suck, don't bother doing any combat until a few researches into the game. Bubble engines are a must, as are some efficiency upgrades you mentioned (compact fuel cells, better scanners). Maybe there are more non-combat techs that really deserve priority? Combat kinda has a few "stages" you could start on. Escorts are cheap, but probably worthless. The earliest you can think of fighting is having bubble frigates with a nice tier 2 or 3 weapon. But I wouldn't bother until you have all of the following. Destroyers, tier 3 hyperdrive, at least one good weapon, armor and shields. Preferably fighters and the boarding thingies. But before you can build any decent fleet, you need a good economy to support it, and a decent supply of whatever materials are your bottleneck. For colonization you also need some techs, but more importantly a great economy. 40k+ and a 4k upkeep cost that only goes down slowly! I'm not sure but I don't think any colonies make any money even close to when you get to the decent army stage. So would that mean you are better off saving money and expanding the economy first? The downstairs to this is the AI beating you to colonies, cherry picking those you like? To prevent this, can't you claim a future colony by building a mining station and spaceport there? Iirc those only have a few hundred upkeep and help the economy. Once you are rich but behind on colonies, there must be tricks to speed it up, right? (some civilian techs to boost migration?).
Great video! I like to send my early spies to steal galaxy maps from pirates. I go as low as 10%. The spy is likely sitting around for years doing nothing anyways so no real loss. They have massive exploration and you can enter the warpstage with 10 constuction ships and a few explorers for ruins, if you get the map.
Best tutorial I have seen yet. Thank you for the well researched and thought-out video. Can you tell me how to add military ships to fleets? I somehow missed that and just cannot find it anywhere. Thanks! EDIT Totally figured it out. You can select ships in the general military panel with CTRL. From there you can select ONE ship from the fleet you want to join ships to, and then click add to fleet. It is an up-arrow at the very bottom left of the UI.
Select the ship that you want to add to a fleet. Hover over the options at the bottom of the panel. One of them will have a popup that says "add to fleet" and it provides a list of existing fleets. Select the fleet. Done.
Just as the previous video, quite informative. Your solution for Pirates probably works well for beginners such as my self. I am brand new to DW2 and never played DWU. In my very first game, I tried to deny the Pirates and got my ass kicked pretty hard for it. Next try, I will pay them off...but it really rubs me the wrong way. Please continue offering these tutorials.
I would love to know more about trading and when exactly resources are bought and sold. as it is it's pretty hard to be sure of the cause of any one fluctuation in cash on hand. I had some times where my cashflow was great but cash on hand was falling fast. This was even at times where i wasnt retrofitting my miliatry or building new ones. I assumed it must either be exploration ships or construction ships upgrading (i had left design and retrofit on auto for those) or maybe there was a resource shortage and my empire was buying a lot of resources from a trade partner. It would also be nice to know more about what certain components do. mostly in the case of those components applicable to civilian roles. your explanation of exploration did check one of those boxes
Great video! it is actually very informative and in a short time! if there could be more of this it would be great! Awesome work with this one, it help us newbie players alot! :D
I will proceed and share my learning about this great game with you folks, don't worry =) I enjoy this game a lot and making these videos kinda also helps me to check if I understood fully how everything works. Kind of a win-win situation here :D
If solar collectors work like in DW1 they only provide energy if the ship is stationary. I have noticed that every ship is now fitted with at least one per default. Ships still need fuel to get around, nut solar collectors prevent you from going out of fuel just by parking in orbit. Also I believe they only work in a solar system e.g. close enough to a star.
For research, "basic colonization" is useless at first. You need a second piece of research "expanded civilian ships" to even make colony ships. Then colony ships can be totally useless if you don't have the right fuel storage, hyperdrive unit, or crew quarters. Personally I focus on research, as far as I can push it. All research bonuses build your momentum, and help you outpace the competition. "Fast mining" as well will squeeze more out of the resources you do have. Then you want your "exploration scanners" for early game exploration, and "planetary exploration". After that, focus on some construction for bigger ships, like medium freighters. Then you'll also get larger space stations, so you may want to research "coordinated docking" for higher throughput. Only after all of this, should you even consider colonization. You won't need commerce until you're trading with an empire. You won't need many weapons, focus on the ones you already have, shields, and armor plating. Just enough to put up a fight. Otherwise just spam research bonuses, get to "structured research" as fast as possible and then beyond
I did mention that Basic Colonization and Expanded Civilian Ships belong together. I also did mention them among other "useful early game techs", not as something to be rushed ASAP. The research part merely was meant as an overview of useful things to glance at in the early game, that's all.
@@Ic0nGaming oh ya, I can see you're exploring the game, and giving your thoughts on it. This was just my comment on your approach. Great video otherwise my man!
I would point out that exploration can drive science too. Better than straight research tech (though I don't neglect those). Put up as many science stations as you can (and can afford) as soon as you find them. I strip those stations down (redesign them before putting up the first one) early game to make them cheaper (no defenses or weapons) then upgrade them once things start heating up so they have a chance to defend themselves. They also appear to promote appearance of scientists which further help. That first research labs is important for stations early on. But having found lots of research sites is more important overall. Plus there are often immediate benefits to techs from the process of finding those research sites.
what i do different in early game is after skip drive i focus the next research lab... reason.. the skipdrive is enough to explore your own system for quite a while and it benefits every following research by quite a bit... sure takes longer to get out of the system that way.. but you won't leave it all to soon anyway
Keep in mind that the Research Lab (the first tech) is merely a module for Spaceships, nothing you would install on a planet. I think it's necessary for research stations (not sure, proof appreciated) and therefore a pretty good pointer which I missed. I still think pressing forward for an expansionistic approach is important, but that's in the end a matter of playstyle. =) Thanks for sharing!
@@Bashnudel Yes, we mean the same thing. The tech basically upgrades your early game research stations by adding a better module into them. I personally still prefer investing the time into the 2nd warp drive first to send out lots of Explorers ASAP, but that's a matter of preference. I'm personally a strong believer of aggressive expansions, but I see no flaw in your approach either.
@@Ic0nGaming It's not hard to actually test. I haven't done this test, but suspect Bashy is correct. You want a space port up ASAP anyway, and it has... research labs! So those produce more points. A lot more. Another thing I've seen a lot is go zero tax at the start. THIS one I tested. It's not close to optimal. Optimal in my testing was 15% taxes, BUT put 100% into population growth. If you're running with automatic budgeting, zero is probably better because the AI splits it 50/50 with tech spending (which does nothing when you're running a negative budget.) You also end up with a surplus in your budget because all that cash isn't needed for growth, so you have a bit more to invest in growing your economy faster in other ways (more maintenance for ships.) This was on normal difficulty. It may be different on other difficulties. To quantify the improvement in population at 15% tax and 100% invested into population growth, I ran the tests for 6 months from the very start. I got around 50% more population growth at 15% than at 0% tax. Remember, that compounds into the future and population is a key factor to success. I tested in 5% steps up to 20% and then in 1% increments around 15%. The sweet spot was 15%.
Yes! That's why you should spam the hell outta stations as soon as you have the most basic things down for your empire =) I'm merely saying that you should be careful with your very early building jobs cause you are quite limited. The higher the difficulty level, the more important this grows. On lower difficulties it doesn't even matter at all imho.
Kinda yes and no. I don't see any drawback (yet) in the later stages of the Early Game (transitioning into mid 5-10 colonies), cause at this point you don't have any shortages of strategical materials anymore. If there are any good reasons I don't know of yet I hope somebody else will comment or I'll tell you once I find out myself ^^
@@Ic0nGaming intuitively I d say that one Mining station of each construction material per space dock could be a good growth measure. But that is pure speculation
@@Ic0nGaming I think you should spam fuel mining stations :) You deny them to your enemies, and expand your range. Grab any decent one immediately, and all of them later. Oh, and you sell fuel to your... frenemies too.
Not as far as I know. I strangled one of my economies this way once too. But if your planets are Habitability 20+ they will turn out profitable eventually ;)
Some good Advices but ..Just my Experiences and Oppinion...the Basics of Military Research has to come before you Expand your first Colony. At least some Ionblasters and a Basic Fregate. Build some Patrols (2 Escorts and one Fregate are enough per Patrol for the Beginning) for your Core-Systems. At higher Difficulties the Nonmilitary wont work if you arent willed to pay a lot of your income to Pirates. Some Basic Weapons and Stuff will Prevent Pirates raiding you . When you play at highest Difficulty a long Period where you cant defend your Stations could end in a fast End when you meet the wrong Factions And at least a fully Nonmilitary Playstyle is a little bit boring. Of cause this isnt necessary on lower difficulties cause the AI is just silly. AI really needs some Improvements..the Game is way to easy
Most informative Distant Worlds video yet. Too many other ones are the slow, methodical click and point to create your galaxy etc. The information and delivery of what you're providing is efficient and effective--and enjoyable. Thank you.
I only watched a few games, but I noticed a few things they had in common.
Early ships and tech suck, don't bother doing any combat until a few researches into the game. Bubble engines are a must, as are some efficiency upgrades you mentioned (compact fuel cells, better scanners). Maybe there are more non-combat techs that really deserve priority?
Combat kinda has a few "stages" you could start on. Escorts are cheap, but probably worthless. The earliest you can think of fighting is having bubble frigates with a nice tier 2 or 3 weapon. But I wouldn't bother until you have all of the following.
Destroyers, tier 3 hyperdrive, at least one good weapon, armor and shields. Preferably fighters and the boarding thingies.
But before you can build any decent fleet, you need a good economy to support it, and a decent supply of whatever materials are your bottleneck.
For colonization you also need some techs, but more importantly a great economy. 40k+ and a 4k upkeep cost that only goes down slowly! I'm not sure but I don't think any colonies make any money even close to when you get to the decent army stage. So would that mean you are better off saving money and expanding the economy first?
The downstairs to this is the AI beating you to colonies, cherry picking those you like? To prevent this, can't you claim a future colony by building a mining station and spaceport there? Iirc those only have a few hundred upkeep and help the economy.
Once you are rich but behind on colonies, there must be tricks to speed it up, right? (some civilian techs to boost migration?).
Great video!
I like to send my early spies to steal galaxy maps from pirates. I go as low as 10%. The spy is likely sitting around for years doing nothing anyways so no real loss. They have massive exploration and you can enter the warpstage with 10 constuction ships and a few explorers for ruins, if you get the map.
Good video, thank you!
Best tutorial I have seen yet. Thank you for the well researched and thought-out video.
Can you tell me how to add military ships to fleets? I somehow missed that and just cannot find it anywhere. Thanks!
EDIT
Totally figured it out. You can select ships in the general military panel with CTRL. From there you can select ONE ship from the fleet you want to join ships to, and then click add to fleet. It is an up-arrow at the very bottom left of the UI.
Select the ship that you want to add to a fleet. Hover over the options at the bottom of the panel. One of them will have a popup that says "add to fleet" and it provides a list of existing fleets. Select the fleet. Done.
Just as the previous video, quite informative. Your solution for Pirates probably works well for beginners such as my self. I am brand new to DW2 and never played DWU. In my very first game, I tried to deny the Pirates and got my ass kicked pretty hard for it. Next try, I will pay them off...but it really rubs me the wrong way. Please continue offering these tutorials.
I would love to know more about trading and when exactly resources are bought and sold. as it is it's pretty hard to be sure of the cause of any one fluctuation in cash on hand. I had some times where my cashflow was great but cash on hand was falling fast. This was even at times where i wasnt retrofitting my miliatry or building new ones. I assumed it must either be exploration ships or construction ships upgrading (i had left design and retrofit on auto for those) or maybe there was a resource shortage and my empire was buying a lot of resources from a trade partner.
It would also be nice to know more about what certain components do. mostly in the case of those components applicable to civilian roles. your explanation of exploration did check one of those boxes
Great video! it is actually very informative and in a short time! if there could be more of this it would be great!
Awesome work with this one, it help us newbie players alot! :D
I will proceed and share my learning about this great game with you folks, don't worry =)
I enjoy this game a lot and making these videos kinda also helps me to check if I understood fully how everything works. Kind of a win-win situation here :D
That's what I was looking for thanks
If solar collectors work like in DW1 they only provide energy if the ship is stationary. I have noticed that every ship is now fitted with at least one per default. Ships still need fuel to get around, nut solar collectors prevent you from going out of fuel just by parking in orbit.
Also I believe they only work in a solar system e.g. close enough to a star.
Thanks!
Thank you
i love your videos! thanks!
good tutorial, just wish the game didnt crash every 10mins, despite several patchs it still needs far more work.
Helped alot. Thx
Can you make a video on transporting troops and ground invasions/raids. Good video thanks!
Will do something like that in the future, still busy learning ^^
But thanks for the nudge, I'll do something outta that ;)
For research, "basic colonization" is useless at first. You need a second piece of research "expanded civilian ships" to even make colony ships. Then colony ships can be totally useless if you don't have the right fuel storage, hyperdrive unit, or crew quarters.
Personally I focus on research, as far as I can push it. All research bonuses build your momentum, and help you outpace the competition. "Fast mining" as well will squeeze more out of the resources you do have. Then you want your "exploration scanners" for early game exploration, and "planetary exploration". After that, focus on some construction for bigger ships, like medium freighters. Then you'll also get larger space stations, so you may want to research "coordinated docking" for higher throughput.
Only after all of this, should you even consider colonization.
You won't need commerce until you're trading with an empire. You won't need many weapons, focus on the ones you already have, shields, and armor plating. Just enough to put up a fight. Otherwise just spam research bonuses, get to "structured research" as fast as possible and then beyond
I did mention that Basic Colonization and Expanded Civilian Ships belong together. I also did mention them among other "useful early game techs", not as something to be rushed ASAP.
The research part merely was meant as an overview of useful things to glance at in the early game, that's all.
@@Ic0nGaming oh ya, I can see you're exploring the game, and giving your thoughts on it. This was just my comment on your approach. Great video otherwise my man!
I would point out that exploration can drive science too. Better than straight research tech (though I don't neglect those). Put up as many science stations as you can (and can afford) as soon as you find them. I strip those stations down (redesign them before putting up the first one) early game to make them cheaper (no defenses or weapons) then upgrade them once things start heating up so they have a chance to defend themselves. They also appear to promote appearance of scientists which further help. That first research labs is important for stations early on. But having found lots of research sites is more important overall. Plus there are often immediate benefits to techs from the process of finding those research sites.
what i do different in early game is after skip drive i focus the next research lab... reason.. the skipdrive is enough to explore your own system for quite a while and it benefits every following research by quite a bit... sure takes longer to get out of the system that way.. but you won't leave it all to soon anyway
Keep in mind that the Research Lab (the first tech) is merely a module for Spaceships, nothing you would install on a planet. I think it's necessary for research stations (not sure, proof appreciated) and therefore a pretty good pointer which I missed. I still think pressing forward for an expansionistic approach is important, but that's in the end a matter of playstyle. =)
Thanks for sharing!
@@Ic0nGaming Keep in mind that the Research Lab (the first tech) is merely a module for Spaceships
@@Bashnudel Yes, we mean the same thing. The tech basically upgrades your early game research stations by adding a better module into them.
I personally still prefer investing the time into the 2nd warp drive first to send out lots of Explorers ASAP, but that's a matter of preference.
I'm personally a strong believer of aggressive expansions, but I see no flaw in your approach either.
@@Ic0nGaming It's not hard to actually test. I haven't done this test, but suspect Bashy is correct. You want a space port up ASAP anyway, and it has... research labs! So those produce more points. A lot more.
Another thing I've seen a lot is go zero tax at the start. THIS one I tested. It's not close to optimal. Optimal in my testing was 15% taxes, BUT put 100% into population growth. If you're running with automatic budgeting, zero is probably better because the AI splits it 50/50 with tech spending (which does nothing when you're running a negative budget.) You also end up with a surplus in your budget because all that cash isn't needed for growth, so you have a bit more to invest in growing your economy faster in other ways (more maintenance for ships.) This was on normal difficulty. It may be different on other difficulties.
To quantify the improvement in population at 15% tax and 100% invested into population growth, I ran the tests for 6 months from the very start. I got around 50% more population growth at 15% than at 0% tax. Remember, that compounds into the future and population is a key factor to success. I tested in 5% steps up to 20% and then in 1% increments around 15%. The sweet spot was 15%.
but the more stations you build, the more ships the private economy builds.... which gives you more cash (quick, but maintenance later)
Yes! That's why you should spam the hell outta stations as soon as you have the most basic things down for your empire =)
I'm merely saying that you should be careful with your very early building jobs cause you are quite limited. The higher the difficulty level, the more important this grows. On lower difficulties it doesn't even matter at all imho.
Tell me your enjoyment level after you spend the time to learn this game?
how can you endure that game music over and over again ? i just put some youtube music and play the game or else i go crazy
I always listen to music in games briefly, then set music volume to zero :p Even on the good music! (I love Tropico music, but not nonstop!)
Is there a point where you should spam mining stations?
Kinda yes and no. I don't see any drawback (yet) in the later stages of the Early Game (transitioning into mid 5-10 colonies), cause at this point you don't have any shortages of strategical materials anymore.
If there are any good reasons I don't know of yet I hope somebody else will comment or I'll tell you once I find out myself ^^
@@Ic0nGaming intuitively I d say that one Mining station of each construction material per space dock could be a good growth measure. But that is pure speculation
@@Ic0nGaming I think you should spam fuel mining stations :) You deny them to your enemies, and expand your range. Grab any decent one immediately, and all of them later. Oh, and you sell fuel to your... frenemies too.
Can you bail on a planet you've colonized ? I can't find anything and I over did it :)
Not as far as I know. I strangled one of my economies this way once too. But if your planets are Habitability 20+ they will turn out profitable eventually ;)
@@Ic0nGaming I didn't think so but wanted to ask someone, thanks
Some good Advices but ..Just my Experiences and Oppinion...the Basics of Military Research has to come before you Expand your first Colony.
At least some Ionblasters and a Basic Fregate.
Build some Patrols (2 Escorts and one Fregate are enough per Patrol for the Beginning) for your Core-Systems.
At higher Difficulties the Nonmilitary wont work if you arent willed to pay a lot of your income to Pirates.
Some Basic Weapons and Stuff will Prevent Pirates raiding you .
When you play at highest Difficulty a long Period where you cant defend your Stations could end in a fast End when you meet the wrong Factions
And at least a fully Nonmilitary Playstyle is a little bit boring.
Of cause this isnt necessary on lower difficulties cause the AI is just silly. AI really needs some Improvements..the Game is way to easy