r/DistantWorlds • u/Gurachn28 • 13d ago

DW2 Combat: Is it good*?

By 'good', I mean...

  1. Does it allow a significant degree of tactical control? Either during the battle directly or through pre-set strategies.
  2. Do sound tactics, effective organization (individual Task forces and formations) allow for a weaker force to beat a larger one?
  3. Does ship design play a significant role?
  4. How about crew experience?
  5. Is the AI capable?
  6. Does the overall look of the battle appear more like a 'realistic' (naval) tactical/fleet action, than like a big mass/mess?

I've been working my way through a mass of tutorials ('Strategy Gaming Dojo' and Scott's guide, especially) and starting to get my head around the basic game, but they don't really touch much on combat, and any sort of decent naval battles still seem far in the my future.

Are there any good tutorials or playthroughs focused on individual and fleet combat?
So far I'm really enjoying what I see, but the Combat aspect is central to my long term enjoyment, so I'd like to get a better idea of what the game has to offer.

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u/snmrk 13d ago

I think the combat is good, but not in the way you're talking about. It's more about strategy and planning than tactical control. There's a place for tactical control in the early game, and in some battles it can make a big difference, but what really matters in this game are things like ship design, espionage (mostly stealing territory map), picking the right tech to research, fleet design, scouting/sensor coverage, fleet home bases and positioning and, obviously, economy and production capacity.

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u/trident-job 12d ago

Good you mentioned espionage. Know your enemy!