Hello everyone and thank you for your interest in Distant Worlds 2!
One of the points of feedback we heard from the base game release was that even though the factions had more to differentiate themselves from each other than in the original Distant Worlds, players wanted more differentiation in the gameplay between factions.
Since the release of the base game, we’ve created and released two DLCs, adding a total of four new factions to the game (the Ikkuro, Dhayut, Quameno and Gizurean), each with their own unique gameplay, story, ships, techs and capabilities. The development for these DLCs also added new features to the game to allow for more faction differentiation and to date, these faction DLCs have been well received.
We announced after the release of the Ikkuro and Dhayut DLC that we would also begin an effort to refresh the gameplay for all of the base game factions to make them more unique and bring them up to the level of the DLC factions. The upcoming “Game Faction Update” marks the beginning of updating the base game factions.
This update includes a refresh of the Human and Mortalen factions as well as all the base Government types. There are many other changes, including improved border graphics and a new visualization for Fleet Engagement ranges. Future updates will gradually cover the remaining base game factions until all are refreshed. Next up are the Zenox and Boskara and after that, the Teekan and Haakonish.
I will summarize the faction and government changes below, but for the full information, please read through the in-game faction and government descriptions carefully once the update is officially released. There are also new event illustrations and loading screens to go along with these changes.
The Humans
The Humans are understandably the most played faction and we also have looked at them as an entry point to the game for most, so we wanted them to be able to support a variety of playstyles.
They are now slightly better at living on Continental worlds and have a new conditional event which grants a new free Colonization tech advance when you colonize a new Continental world (you can receive this bonus once per planet).
For those focused on Trade or Tourism, we changed their Great Art Exposition from a faction event on a timer to a better conditional event which triggers whenever you sign a Free Trade Agreement or build a new Resort Base. It grants you a Trade and Tourism income throughout your empire along with a boost to Colony income and Tourism for the colony where the Great Art Exposition is held, but you can’t trigger it more than once every 5 years.
When war is declared on your Human empire, you now may choose either a new Admiral or new General with two positive traits when the “Hero of the Hour” event triggers, reflecting the Human ability to compete in the military sphere.
Internal divisions among Humans are reflected through “Internal Debates”, which reduces happiness throughout your empire, but also grants you a capable new Ambassador when you sign a new Defense treaty.
When a foreign intelligence mission against you succeeds (but is detected) you may now choose to spend a Spy to gain a +20% boost to Counter Espionage along with a small decrease to Colony Happiness throughout your empire for the next 2 years, helping Humans with a more Espionage-driven playstyle.
Humans now have Carriers which are larger than those of other factions, allowing them to either fit more starfighters or just be more well-rounded fighting ships.
We also added new Leader, Ambassador, Scientist, Spy character traits and expanded all the Human unique tech trees to make them more useful and accessible earlier in the research tree.
Humans also now have a new unique facility, the Foundation for Galactic Cooperation, which boosts Diplomacy, Espionage, PsyOps, Concealment and Trade.
Finally, we went through and reviewed and fixed any issues with the Human race-specific victory conditions.
The Mortalen
The Mortalen are disciplined, reliable, loyal but very militaristic. They can be your best friend if you invest in getting along with them or your worst enemy if you cross them. We wanted to use the new faction tech we had available to build on their militaristic way of dealing with the galaxy and give our more warlike players a fun experience.
Mortalen troops now gain experience and revcover faster than before and the Mortalen are also better at Armor Research, about which more below.
The previous timed faction events “Warrior Wave” and “Patriotic Wave” are now conditional events. Warrior Wave now triggers when you declare war and lets you choose between a boost to Population Growth and Troop Recruitment or a boost to Troop Attack Strength for 2 years. Patriotic Wave now triggers when war is declared on you and gives you a choice of Population Growth and either Corruption Reduction or War Weariness Reduction.
Any of these choices will help you in wartime, but it will be your choice how best to respond.
When you invade and conquer an enemy world you will now trigger “Know Your Enemy” as the Mortalen tacticians study their foes, allowing you to choose a 2 year boost to either Espionage and Counter Espionage or Targeting and Countermeasures.
Periodically you will also be asked to choose between two characters, always picked from your Leader, Admirals and Generals. Whoever you choose will undergo a trial of arms, with a good chance to succeed and gain a positive trait and a smaller chance to fail and gain a negative trait. This will also help develop the most experienced Admirals and Generals, which are relevant for your victory conditions, if these trials go well for you.
All Mortalen ship and spaceport hulls now have +1 Reactive Armor rating, making their ships harder to destroy, especially in the early game. The Mortalen also receive a new unique Armor tech called Block Armor, which has its own sub-tree and has a higher Reactive rating than standard armor.
There are also new unique Leader, Admiral, General, Ambassador character traits and the other Mortalen unique techs were expanded as with the Human ones.
Finally, we went through and reviewed and fixed any issues with the Mortalen race-specific victory conditions.
The Governments
We revisited every base game Government type and added some unique gameplay to each of them. One of the most changed, which I’ll review here, is Feudalism. Feudalism is a relatively unstable type of government in that leadership changes at the top tend to be very disruptive, but it now gains several very interesting features to compensate for those periodic disruptions and rebellions.
In a Feudal Empire, your Private Economy can now build individual Feudal Escorts for its own Escort, Guard and Patrol missions. You will see these marked with a Star in your ship list and it will state that they are not state-controlled. You will not be able to give them orders, but they will help keep your space safer from lower level threats such as pirates and creatures, without costing you any State income or maintenance.
Feudalism also gets upgraded Planetary Militia which fights like Infantry without upgrades. This is a big strength increase which makes Feudal worlds significantly harder to conquer.
Finally, Feudal Obligations will double your Troop Recruitment Rate 2 years after War declaration and your Troops gain experience 25% faster.
I hope this article gives you a good preview of what’s coming in the Game Faction update and that these free improvements will increase your enjoyment of Distant Worlds 2. Thanks again for your support!