Dev Diary #3 – Lone Pirate
The Shadows Rising expansion for Distant Worlds 2 introduces a completely new game mode: Lone Pirate. You have a single ship, travelling the stars. You have no bases or other ships. You have the freedom to pursue any path you choose: Simple trading of in-demand resources across t
The Shadows Rising expansion for Distant Worlds 2 introduces a completely new game mode: Lone Pirate.
You have a single ship, travelling the stars. You have no bases or other ships. You have the freedom to pursue any path you choose:
Simple trading of in-demand resources across the galaxy
Action-packed raiding and combat to loot and pillage, or to acquire new ships
Stealthily perform contracts on behalf of others, hunting bounties, destroying targets or finding items
...or pursue any combination of the above areas as you forge your own path.
As a Lone Pirate you rely on Shadowports for repairs or upgrades to your ship.
You are able to refuel at any independent colony or friendly pirate base, including Shadowports.
You are a free agent, unencumbered by obligations, responsible only for yourself.
In time you may choose to grow and become a more established pirate faction, but that is up to you...
When you grow stronger you also have the option of becoming a Legendary Lone Pirate.
Differences with standard gameplay
Uniquely as a lone pirate you have no regular income or expenses. You simply earn money based on what you do. To pay for fuel, repairs, upgrades or even an entirely new ship, you must actively make money through various activities.
Some other activities that are typical for standard Distant Worlds gameplay are mostly absent from Lone Pirate gameplay:
No research
No ship design or construction except for upgrading or buying new ships at Shadowports
No resource mining
Lone Pirate Playstyle
Similar to pirate factions, Lone pirates also have a playstyle that determines their starting ship, as well as their advantages.
Smuggler playstyle is probably the easiest for a lone pirate. It is a safer option, where most income is earned through resource trading. Other options like Raider and Bounty Hunter, have more of a military focus, where you’re encouraged to generate income from raiding or contracts to destroy dangerous threats.
Let’s take a closer look at two key ways that lone pirates earn income: Contracts and Trading Resources.
Contracts
Contracts provide a variety of options for making money. Each type of contract is often more suited to a particular lone pirate playstyle:
Resource Delivery: best suited for Smugglers whose ships typically have more cargo space available. However, any lone pirate might do some occasional resource trading. Smugglers also have very high scan evasion, allowing them to better avoid detection when smuggling black market resources that can be bought cheaper than normal.
Destroying Targets: best suited to lone pirates with strong military ships that can survive combat and take down serious threats.
Acquiring Items: this includes intelligence missions to capture or rescue characters. It also includes stealing artifacts or finding lost items. Any lone pirate can undertake these contracts, but they are especially well-suited to spies and leaders with strong espionage and sabotage skills.
Trading Resources and Smuggling
Resource trading means buying and selling resources throughout the galaxy. Typically, you would buy resources at the lowest price you can find and then search for the destination that will pay the most to buy the resource.
You must also consider distance between the source and destination. Obviously closer locations allow you to earn money more quickly. In addition, each location will have a limit to how much of a resource they are willing to buy. This limit may often be zero, i.e. the location will not buy any of that resource.
To view trading locations, you can use the Trading Points screen. This will show you a distance-sorted list of places where you can buy and sell resources. For each location you can click the button at the right to show the resource amounts and prices, as well as the buy limit for the resource.
Filtering the Trading Points list by a specific resource will show the amounts, prices and limits directly in the Trading Points list.
Pirates can also choose to smuggle contraband resources from the Black Market. Colonies that are influenced by pirate factions generate contraband resources that are available to buy at a much lower price than normal.
However, smuggling contraband resources is risky – if you are detected then you will be attacked as a smuggler.
Other factions can detect smugglers by having good Trace Scanners on their ships. Pirates can prevent detection of smuggled resources by having good Scanner Jamming on their ships, and by keeping their distance from potential scanners (Trace Scanner detection power declines with range).
Smuggling offers the possibility for greater rewards but also adds some risk of losing your ship.
Focused User Interface
Lone pirates use a cut-down user interface with less sections, allowing them to more easily focus on the activities critical to them. This includes areas like exploration, diplomacy, contracts and resource trading.
The header bar at the top of the main view also shows important information for you as a Lone Pirate: a quick link to your own ship, and quick links to all known Shadowports.
When playing as a lone pirate, with only one ship, some of the user interface buttons can also use implied behavior.
For example, there is often no need to select your ship to assign missions. Instead you just click the action buttons under the Selected Item to move, dock, attack, etc.
Similarly clicking the ‘Move and Dock’ button in the Trading Points list allows you to immediately assign a Dock mission to your ship without needing to first select it.
Shadowports
Shadowports are important bases for lone pirates that provide critical services.
At Shadowports you can refuel and repair your ship.
You can also upgrade your ship with new components or specialized equipment.
You can even browse and buy a completely new ship, better equipped to survive the dangerous life of a lone pirate.
Shadowports have a supply of many resources, providing opportunities for trade.
They also have their own private communications network known as the ShadowNet that provides special contracts, not available otherwise, that are directly offered to pirates. These contracts often involve finding a lost item or destroying a great threat.
Special Missions
Pirate characters can also carry out special missions at foreign colonies and bases. These special missions include the following:
Assassinating a character
Capturing a character
Rescuing an imprisoned character
Stealing an artifact
Destroying a facility
To carry out these missions, the character requires the relevant skill, like Espionage or Sabotage. You can even include a team of multiple characters, though their skills will stack in a diminishing manner.
Lone Pirates typically have a Spy character that can help them with these types of special missions. In addition, their Leader character will often also have espionage skills.
To initiate the special mission you must select your ship with the character or team onboard. Your ship must be nearby the target colony or base. Then right-click on the target for a pop-up list of options. If there are any special missions available they will appear at the bottom of the list. Click the desired special mission to initiate it.
The characters onboard the ship will then travel to the target and carry out the mission. The mission progress will be shown in a small panel to the right of the Selection Panel.
If the mission succeeds then the target objective is achieved, and any items are added to the ship (characters, artifacts, etc). If the mission fails then the characters will simply return to the ship. However, there is always a risk of a complete mission failure where the characters are captured.
Special missions often parallel intelligence missions, but they are easier to achieve, especially when combining a team of characters.
Cockpit mode
A new feature in Shadows Rising is the option for pirates to operate their ships from the cockpit or bridge view. This view puts you ‘in the driver's seat,’ allowing you to control your ship directly using either a game pad or the keyboard.
The rest of the DW2 user interface remains available in this view, allowing you to trade resources, plan routes and examine available contracts all from your cockpit.
In the cockpit itself there is a panel at the bottom-right showing the current status of your ship, similar to the Selection Panel on the left. There are also targeting and selection brackets with hotkeys that allow you to quickly cycle through all items and enemy targets at the current location.
Cockpit mode offers an interesting difference in how you play the game, and is especially well-matched with Lone Pirate gameplay.
Lone Pirate Victory Conditions
Lone Pirates do not have victory conditions that can end the game. Instead, their goal is to grow large enough to build a pirate base and become a pirate faction. Alternatively, they can grow strong enough to become a Legendary Lone Pirate.
However, the Victory Conditions screen shows the relative progress of all known Lone Pirates in various areas enabling you to compare yourself to others.
Regularly upgrading your ship is important as a Lone Pirate. As you earn enough money you should visit Shadowports to get better components and equipment. You should also buy larger ship hulls, eventually reaching Destroyer hulls. This will enable you to take on more dangerous and lucrative contracts and missions. You will need a strong and capable ship (and plenty of money) to become a Legendary Lone Pirate (see below).
Moving from a Lone Pirate to a Pirate Faction
In time you may decide that being a Lone Pirate is not your goal. If you accumulate a vast amount of credits, you can pay a Shadowport for a one-time construction contract. A Construction ship from a nearby Shadowport will build a new Spaceport for you at a location of your choice. Your play experience will then change from Lone Pirate to Pirate Faction once that Spaceport is completed.
Henceforth, you will be competing with other Pirate Factions in terms of your Victory Conditions rather than against other Lone Pirates.
Becoming a Legendary Lone Pirate
If you are successful enough as a Lone Pirate, you may earn the hostility of other envious pirate factions who see you as a threat. This can lead to them sending a Bounty Hunter after you to destroy you.
If you defeat the Bounty Hunter you will earn the status of Legendary Lone Pirate. This auto-switches you to the Legendary Lone Pirate government style, which combines all of the advantages of the different styles of lone piracy (Pirates, Smugglers, Raiders, Mercenaries) into a single form of government.
As a Legendary Lone Pirate, you will then have access to Cruiser and Large Freighter ship hulls at Shadowports, allowing you to upgrade your ship even further.
Conclusion
Tapping into the deep mechanics of Distant Worlds opens up detailed gameplay at the level of a single ship, whether that involves resources, contracts, exploration or special missions.
Lone Piracy provides a challenging and active new mode of play in Distant Worlds. Charting your path across the stars in a single ship, a free agent, unencumbered by obligations, forging your own path.
