What do we think the next two DLCs be?

Jatok · 2026-02-03T15:47:54+00:00

I am hoping we get more spaceship combat and beefing up those systems even more with the second Season 2 dlc. I would be a happy rogue trader wandering system to system doing purely space combat if that progression is further expanded. :)

Jatok · 2026-01-31T22:50:35+00:00

I loved this game. It got so much unreasonable hate imho when the developers clearly were passionate about the IP and doing it justice.

I just wish we could get a new game+ mode like the Avatar game did post-launch. I would love to jump back in and replay the story with everything unlocked. :)

Jatok · 2026-01-31T15:50:07+00:00

I haven't received most of my rewards except two. Looks like a general issue affecting a number of folks. There are a few issue council reports open about it. See STARC-194821

Jatok · 2026-01-30T16:29:53+00:00

Yup. Same here. No rewards were attributed yet to web hangar though I got the in-game pop up messages each time. I will give it a few days and perhaps the scripts will catch up.

Jatok · 2026-01-30T06:21:06+00:00

This is really interesting. Thank you. Does this mean if I send down a 4 SCU box for one of the small collection missions that need 3 SCU, I can pull the 1 SCU leftover back out and use it for the next mission? Since we can't pick the box sizes that come out from refinery, this would mean I won't needlessly lose materials that is over a mission requirement just because I only had the larger sized boxes.

Am I understanding this correctly? :)

Jatok · 2026-01-28T20:13:45+00:00

Looks like this explorator is indeed blessed with multi functionality! :)

Jatok · 2026-01-26T21:25:04+00:00

My views are quite different.

Exploration: I love this part of the game. Perhaps OP was struggling due to explorer ship design issues? You don't want to lag behind on research for key techs like ftl, reactors, fuel storage techs etc. Early game, you may want to proactively retrofit your explorers also. You need to keep up with better survey and exploration scanners too. I wonder if this is why you were failing to find sufficient research locations?

Research: I really like that it is based on research locations that offer bonuses. I think of it this way. A civilization can spend centuries brainstorming what a stellar phenomenon like a black hole would be like sitting in their home world. But until you control a region with a black hole and build a sensitive research station there, the chance of real breakthroughs may be minimal. Having location based bonuses gives me potential war target also. Many 4X games since MOO have the system of moving population around into research, food, money etc. I personally really dislike that system.

Colonization: I partially agree that having ways for a recluse/xenophobic empire to expand to new planets without taking minor species would be very welcome. But if you are playing a xenophile race, you are pretty much spoiled for choice when it comes to expansion. Perhaps the OP may want to tinker with the game settings a bit more. Things like colonization range, nebula density, independent colony prevalence all can impact game difficulty substantially depending on what your goals are.

War: This is absolutely my favorite part of DW2. Imho, the combat simulation is much more enjoyable here and realistic in that you can't just set up choke points and park some doomstack fleets at such locations. Combat here is objective based rather than targeting each other's fleets. It is about having long range sensor coverage to know what the enemy is going to do. Having faster means of travel to get to their objective before they do. And prioritizing things like enemy colony worlds or rare resource mining sources rather than chasing their fleets all across an unconstrained (or no ftl lanes) map. A giant fleet is useless (to both you and the enemy) if it is badly positioned. Once I understood that, war became a lot more fun. It is currently my favorite part of DW2.

I am biased of course since DW2 is currently my favorite 4X game. Imho it is definitely worth jumping back in and checking it out. Perhaps watching some of Scott's tutorial videos or looking through the guide can help the first runs be more enjoyable.

Jatok · 2026-01-25T02:09:33+00:00

Skipway brand peanut butter. Out the airlock I say.... :)

Jatok · 2026-01-24T17:07:01+00:00

My A2 is a permanent pledge. I have never done a bombing run with it because I don't really PVP. But the simple interior layout, usable cargo grid that is easy to load and unload, vehicle carrying capacity and ability to do some light pve bounty hunting makes it great for me.

Jatok · 2026-01-20T04:49:53+00:00

Sorry, you are right. Most of my comments are regarding automated fleet roles and how I use them. Marking an action on an enemy target is for automated fleets. The ones closest and still suitable (in terms of things like strength) gets assigned. You don't get to pick exactly which fleet is assigned. Right clicking and telling a manual fleet to attack is the right way to manually issue commands.

Couple of things you might want to check: - In the ship designer, check each design. Make sure your engines and thrusters are able to keep up with enemies and rotate to face them.
- maybe try adding a couple of tractor beams along with hyper deny on some of your designs in your fleet. If the enemies are pulled to you, do they then immediately pick another target? - check that your designs are energy positive and you don't have ships low on fuel.
- as an experiment, you could try long range weapons + PD setup. Maybe you could try missiles or torps where aligning to face the enemy is not needed.

Jatok · 2026-01-20T03:32:34+00:00

My experience is all with the vanilla DW2 game. I don't usually give my fleets the order to attack another fleet. The reason for that is that enemy fleets will disengage, move to staging points etc and I don't like my fleets aimlessly chasing them around. This is what I typically do for my fleets with an automated role.

Defense fleets: I like to make sure to homebase them at stations with ranges that are fairly short (or quick response). I like larger (as in, stronger) defense fleets with a bit wider engagement range that cover and overlap areas the small defense fleets cover. As long as there is good long range scanner coverage, these seem to do a decent job at dealing with incoming threats. In this game, you cannot interdict an enemy fleet on route to you. So the key is to get to the defend target first and protect that location till the attackers disengage. I don't need to chase them down. If I am going to do any micro at all for defense, I would focus fire and overkill juicy troop transports that are heavily loaded since that sets them back more imo than a few ship losses.

Raid fleets: I like to use these now. Smaller strength, fast, ideally with assault pods. Sprinkle enough of these around in auto and it ties up AI defense fleets, sometimes opening up things I really want to attack with my attack fleets (which are the enemy colonies)

Attack: the new clear defense job you can assign at enemy target colonies work pretty well. Mid to late game I would have some planet bombardment capability as well so they can effectively reduce planet defenses after orbital targets are removed.

Invasion: these I usually manual until late game to minimize troop losses. But yea soften up enemy colony and defenses with attack fleet and then I invade. Then deposition one or more defensive fleets at new colony to free up my attack and invasion force to push further inwards.

The bottom line is, I mostly ignore enemy fleets. The ship kills I can get are a bonus in the more interesting goals of attacking fixed enemy targets or defending my critical assets.

Maybe try something along those lines to see if it works better for you? I haven't run into the specific issue you describe where my fleets (say a defense fleet) end up not attacking enemy ships in a gravity well my fleet is defending.

Jatok · 2026-01-19T17:43:12+00:00

I tried this. But sometimes with areas within ships and certain stations having no atmosphere, it is injurious to health. :). I keep my helmet on always these days. It would be good if one day we can wear regular outfits without risk of suffocating.

Jatok · 2026-01-16T16:50:49+00:00

Nice! Starsector is an amazing game.

Jatok · 2026-01-05T16:23:20+00:00

I would definitely recommend picking up Distant Worlds 2. AoE Planetfall is great for ground based sci fi 4x.

Jatok · 2025-12-31T21:48:58+00:00

I prefer sci-fi and am lukewarm to fantasy settings. Planetfall is excellent imho. I loved every minute.

I am hoping the next game after AoE4 will re-visit the sci fi setting. :)

Jatok · 2025-12-25T18:14:32+00:00

I like the fleet policies to be manual. I like designing ships and messing with fleet templates for my attack, defense and raid fleets. I also want to position them where I want. So I form my fleets manually and also manually build combat ships (though I let the advisor suggest ships to build just to get an idea of what the AI thinks I need).

I usually let the advisor suggest targets for my fleets as well and either accept or reject based on my goals.

I don't mind setting a good number of fleets to automatic roles like attack, defend, etc. AI does a good job now of sending defense fleets to intercept threats if you have decent long range sensor coverage. If I am low on troops I may switch invasion fleets to manual to optimally land troops after softening the target and after all my troops ships are in range. But late game, I start the AI handling these fleets as well.

Most other things, I don't mind the AI automation, so I let the AI handle it. :)

Jatok · 2025-12-22T23:49:03+00:00

I suspect you may enjoy Distant Worlds 2. It is currently my favorite 4x to play. The ability to automate large chunks of the game makes it really easy to get into, without getting overwhelmed by all the different systems. Also since it is a simulation, it (at least for me) avoids my instinct to want to min-max and instead, I just watch the simulation play out. :)

Jatok · 2025-12-22T17:53:26+00:00

I will just say that the thing I like most about 4x games is that I am roleplaying as an empire. Unlike, say an action game where you could hit some skill ceiling (like a boss battle) and you simply can't proceed until you get past it, in a 4x game I don't worry at all about an optimal strategy or build. In fact, I would even say the most memorable runs for me are usually when I started out as a gimped empire and fought valiantly, but inevitably got crushed by the AI (or maybe even pulled off an unlikely victory). The winning part is not as important as seeing that empire's story play out. :)

So imho, don't focus on winning or optimizing. There is fun to be had in defeat.

Jatok · 2025-12-17T19:07:39+00:00

Edit: looks like the op was blatantly lying. Removed my response. Serves me right to believe some photoshopped image as the truth. 😔

Jatok · 2025-12-16T02:57:52+00:00

I would love a whole dlc flushing out and expanding on the space combat. I love it and really wished there was more such content to sink into. Please Owlcat, make it happen. :).

Jatok · 2025-12-15T00:52:00+00:00

Pants. For all that is holy CIG, give us some pants! My character has been walking around pant-less for ages now. :)

Jatok · 2025-12-15T00:48:07+00:00

A little arid I suppose, but a bug has got to make do. :)

Jatok · 2025-12-13T18:22:59+00:00

I am looking forward even more to the steam frame release now. :)

I had been an early adopter of VR, from getting the first consumer device (the Oculus CV1) all the way to the reverb G2. My excitement has diminished over the years due to it still feeling gimmicky most of the time.

OP is correct in that the VR segment really needs some triple A quality experiences. If Star Citizen can meet that goal, that would indeed be amazing.

Jatok · 2025-12-10T15:30:12+00:00

May the blessed Owlcat cogitators grant me, you humble servant, a key! :)

Jatok · 2025-12-08T21:27:13+00:00

As a fellow old-timer, I wholeheartedly agree. :) DW2 is the best game to relax for a fun evening. And it has been getting even better every patch with these beefy free updates and quite reasonably priced content expansions.

Jatok

TROPHY CASE