Custom Ship design explained for Distant Worlds 2

An extension of the ship design guide from Scott's DW2 Guide PDF. For beginners who want to learn how to quickly and easily make custom ship in Distant Worlds 2. Includes some pro tips for intermediate users as well.
If you enjoy it, please consider buying me a cup of coffee (which I will probably spend on a new mic!): ko-fi.com/scot... Thank you!
DW2 Guide: www.matrixgame...

[@PetarStjena007]

I don't say this often but when you stay on point like you then this becomes a perfect video, thx man.

[@scottsspace5562]

So glad you found it helpful. Thanks for the kind words!

[@williamklett6660]

Honestly forgot to come back and watch this. Your guides and analyses are fabulous!

[@scottsspace5562]

Thanks for the kinds words!

[@maddog5458]

Thanks Scott. You're a life saver. Couldn't figure out this game without your guide and videos. The only thing that I wish the game had was a range circle for the ship types so that I could see their operating range in the galaxy. Just would be helpful for me.

[@scottsspace5562]

You're very welcome!

[@wolfk4213]

Well done. Good overview and clearly explained. Thanks.

[@scottsspace5562]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Cheeseybeaver45]

Def needed this thanks man

[@phasestar7787]

Great overview.

[@xerxes8632]

Very informative, great video.

[@DudokX]

I would really love if they added "ship design template" designer. Basically a template editor that would help ai pick components to my specifications. Dwu had the text file but that was quite impractical and fiddly if you wanted to change your focus mid game

[@scottsspace5562]

Great point. It's far from perfect but at least the version only changes are automatic (if a little unrealistic)

[@ShamanKish]

Save you designs regularly. You can reuse them in following games.

[@shawnp6653]

Good stuff Scott! Thanks for your time/effort to share with us. Subbed ...

[@rikwilliams6352]

Good tutorial, thank you.

[@scottsspace5562]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@th7982]

Mind blown. We can design fighters and bombers now ?!

[@MasterLoki1991]

the whole v1 v2 v3 thing is best described and explained as "software update" rather then a new part.

[@scottsspace5562]

Yes - someone else a few weeks ago mentioned this - I think that makes it much easier to understand.

[@jamiegladwin]

If you leave it on "auto design" it will override your ship design with the ai one, as soon as you leave the ship design screen. You need to change it to manual design for that ship type. Also I find it easier to upgrade the AI one rather than start from scratch, as it has all the necessary components.

[@scottsspace5562]

Yup - mentioned before and covered in the most recent video as well

[@marshalldavout7541]

Very helpful video. I have been playing a fair bit but realise that I was actually missing some tricks. OTOH, your DD design was flawed. One of the recommendations highlighted that you were generating less energy from your panels than your static energy requirements. This, I think, could be a serious problem with fuel use and range. The main point is that you actually DID have space and crew for the component you needed to fix it, another energy collector. Great video series.

[@scottsspace5562]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yes - so a simple next tier in Reactors will upgrade them a version number and there will be plenty. I try to finish the entire tier before moving up for important components (engines, reactors, etc.) so it would fix itself very quickly.

[@จตุพรจันทสุรวงศ์]

I think of the Version update without needing to retrofit or upgrade as OTA software update for the component.

[@scottsspace5562]

I like that! With your permission, I'll use that in a future video!

[@จตุพรจันทสุรวงศ์]

@@scottsspace5562 Go ahead. You don't actually need my permission.

[@scottsspace5562]

@@จตุพรจันทสุรวงศ์ Probably not. But still it's polite to ask.

[@chriso4879]

Liked and subbed, great video man, alot of useful information here. Have you messed around with ship boarding? If so I would really like to see you do a video on how to make those ships!

[@scottsspace5562]

Thanks for the sub!

[@hostbeethofer5276]

From my understanding of the game i think it is a huge mistake to recommand automate desgin!!! i manuel desgin every state ship and every station. Because i learned that medic and recreation center give happiness bounus to a planet and AI doesnt build it on spaceport. At the end of the day i have a lot of mining stations and they cost upkeep and that can reduced by recreation center, which ai again doesnt build... so at the end of the day my research station got mining moduls and every upkeep in my empire, private or state now reduced by atleast 7% which, you know, is a lot.

[@scottsspace5562]

Good points (I'm hoping they fix that soon). So you can still do all that you are saying and default to Auto - this way you don't miss fighters, etc. Plus new players can add more and more manual as they go. But as a base, it works - because you can simply turn on individual ships to manual as you design them. Every manual design will switch to manual as you design them - but in case you miss one, the auto will take care of it.

[@Bleilock1]

dunno about you but AI does use recreation centres in autogenerated designs, and all stations, be a spaceport or a mining one have recreation centres in them by default, AI uses them always

[@hostbeethofer5276]

From yesterday onward i saw it too. So either they fixt it or my tech (7%) is high enough for a refit.

[@IntrinsicPalomides]

Great guide thanks, do you or anyone else know of one covering spaceports?

[@kalbarnes2494]

Great video, nice follow up to the guide you put out. Do you have any recommendations for general ship range? I’ve been trying to get military ships to a roughly uniform 700M range but that might be excessive. I’ve also noticed when trying to increase range sometimes replacing a fuel cell with another reactor extends the range drastically. There’s no need for another reactor for power supply, but somehow it makes the ship more fuel efficient and extends fuel range. Do you know of any other component interactions such as this that don’t seem obvious?

[@scottsspace5562]

So be careful about removing reactors (unless you have a really advanced one compared to your drive). You need (as you can see in the video) that you need that hyperdrive blue bar NOT to extend beyond your power bar. If you don't have enough power it won't use it's full warp speed AND during combat it might have issues too. Range is not usually a huge issue mid/late game - but early game it is. One reason for extending range is so that you can reach far away pirate bases - to wipe them out. Basically you want enough range to reach your next military target without having less than half your fuel left when you first arrive. You WILL use a lot of fuel when attacking another empire's colony - because the ships zip around reacting to their reinforcements. So you're in the middle of an invasion - and suddenly your ships can't fire because they are out of fuel! So arrive at a target with more than half fuel is a good guide. On Defense, you don't want to have to refuel often (unless you are defending a fuel location - in which case it's not so bad). Finally - range is good for explorer ships and constructors so that you can scan/build on far away systems.

[@kalbarnes2494]

Appreciate the reply. I think your explanation makes sense, pretty sure I had originally removed one of two reactors in my templates to make room for other components. Adding it back doubled fuel range.

[@2fat4airborne44]

They only thing i cant really grasp atm is the civil stuff. They do not use the mediums or even bigger one. just small. So much stuff is upgraded like docking stations ports etc. still the flying small so stuff takes ages

[@scottsspace5562]

It's frustrating and there is nothing you can do about it unfortunately. Hopefully a future update will fix this.

[@fsfx]

You are definitely not participating in the loudness war.

[@scottsspace5562]

“Speak softly and carry a big stick”

[@xywaxywa9217]

Hi Scott, any new video about Distant Worlds 2 soon as a new massive update about fleets?

[@thirdworldrider6991]

but what ship is that in your channel profile picture?

[@trydierepeat8208]

Thanks this taught me a lot, not sure when i'll implement it but will do at some point.. still getting used to what the left tab options are. .. Food for thought.? Could you in a later video just go over the research tree and try to explain what each thing is for?.. I see things and can vaguely make sense of better damage on guns and stuff, but am just baffled when looking at tractor beams, or why i might need a different crew module or just about everything else. Sadly the game does a pretty poor job at offering any sort of tool tip for most research items, other than some often pretty meaningless stats I'm holding out they'll add it later or will allow mod support so someone can do it for them, as its one of my biggest negative gripe towards the game (one of them) atm. Actually if you could do in depth guides on the game interface that'd be great too I only recently figured out that you need the left panel and research to add more than one concurrent research being done at a time..- in-game tool was suggesting i need to go to research stations and do something that made no sense to me.. (if someone's covered all this stuff from my rant pls point me in the direction.. and if not.. pls keep making vids.)

[@scottsspace5562]

I will get around to research/components. I may do a hybrid and talk about what each component does in a design screen which will answer many of your questions.

[@daisu9818]

Hello nice content mate i'm subbed. I've a question and i hope you can help me. I have 2 active design of frigate, A frigate and B frigate. Id like to have A frigates auto-retrofitting to manually upgraded A frigate design and id like to have B frigates auto-retroffitting to manually upgraded B frigate design. This is somehow not happening because both A Frigates and B Frigates are auto retrofitting to the latest design of the 2. Is there a way? Thank you!

[@scottsspace5562]

Not yet. They hope to add support in some future update for support for that.

[@daisu9818]

@@scottsspace5562 Thank you for the instant answer, keep up the good work

[@russelllogan6630]

I have a clumsy workaround if you keep each design to a separate fleet, eg bombard fleet vs attack fleet, where the main weapon is different. I manually retrofit and manually redesign, but I activate and upgrade one version while temporarily making the second ship design obsolete. I then retrofit that fleet. Then I obsolete the first version and activate, upgrade the second ship design and retrofit the second fleet. You have to have a clear head tho, and I swear the retrofit option arbitrarily jumps from manual to automatic at times.

[@Will-vd1mk]

How do you deal with fighter types and how to build them...

[@scottsspace5562]

I let the AI build them but I may be changing that and making a video on that soon.

[@MalfunctioningAndroid]

That ship on the first pic. Which race is it? Looks very trekky :]

[@scottsspace5562]

It's a derelict ship you find. It's my fav.

[@MalfunctioningAndroid]

@@scottsspace5562 it's awesome. I started googling it after I found one myself. I think it has to go with some race which we are yet to play as. Or Ancient Guardians or something.

[@Njordin2010]

is it possible to let civilians always choose the fast hyperdrive and military the quick initiation? Could you do a guide on all the sensor tech and how / why you use which on which ship?

[@scottsspace5562]

Will do next vid. In fact - right now you might want to manually design constructors and Colony ships because the AI are underpowering them (so they are moving slower than normal). I'm hoping they will fix that soon - in which case I would then not worry about non combat ships.

[@adrian82141]

Should of mention about the engines. Why there more slots sometimes than the amount of engines you can out on it. Its confusing to some.

[@scottsspace5562]

Great feedback - thanks. You CAN fill the slots with more engines but you will have less total space for weapons, etc. It's both a total space limitation AND a maximum slot limitation. Often you can't fill every slot of every area because you'll exceed the total max. space. So I could have taken off one or two of the torpedoes and then added 2 engines for example. This would make a faster ship but with less punch. The punch is always worth the slower speed IMHO.

[@adrian82141]

@@scottsspace5562 Sorry you misunderstood me. On the human light hauler there 3 engine slots but on the right side of the screen just under movement its says engine limit 2. Its a UI thing. If you got only one engine it put it in an bottom engine slot. Which is the middle engine at the back of ship. If 2 engines it used the top 2 engine slots which is the left and right engine. Some people ask this on the forum why they cant have 3 because they see 3 engine slots.

[@scottsspace5562]

@@adrian82141 Got it now. I'm planning a more advanced ship design video - I'll be sure to include that. Thanks for the tip!

[@commanderrreese8284]

How can I get the same ship design from the photo of this video it looks like a Star trek starship

[@scottsspace5562]

You can't design it. I believe it was a derelict ship I repaired.

[@Herlander25]

Could you explain Relics? I found one in a pirate base, how do i get it? And those cientist in pirate base, can i get them for me?

[@scottsspace5562]

They will get transported automatically (a relatively new feature I believe) - the scientists are useless (for now). It is rumored that they will be useful in a future update/patch.

[@Herlander25]

hi. how do i remove the ships to build in the orbital shipyard list ? the yellow one.

[@scottsspace5562]

You can click on any ship in your spaceport build queue and some little controls will come up right below them. One of these is cancel.

[@Radical_Middle]

you might consider improving on sound.

[@scottsspace5562]

Thank you. Already done. Later videos now have my new mic integrated.

[@Radical_Middle]

​@@scottsspace5562 you welcome, Good Luck:)

[@steeneugenpoulsen8174]

Please do not make the mistake of leaving weapon slots empty. Downgrade some of the M to S instead. Quantity > Quality. Two escorts with 1 seeker missiles is better than a single frigate with two missiles, the same is true within one ship or base, fill all the slots to get more fire power, then upgrade the quality. You might be able to argue that cautious ships should go for a single L due to the range, but since you make close combat ships (shakes head sadly) that not really a factor for you. A fleet of 100 power with 10 ships is way stronger than a single ship of 100 power, that is just how the game mechanics work. The Latest Category is broken (and since it's the same system used for upgrade that is broken too). Crew System get removed in favor of Star Marines (That give no crew). Fighter Bays will only show the 100 one, not 25 and 50 . The weapon latest is just utterly broken. The armor latest hides Ion armor even while it's a different category of armor over the standard one and the game world is geared around Ion Defense due to nebulas. There is a ton more "latest" mistakes. Upgrade messes with the slot weapons is put in and upgrades to the wrong weapons most of the time. I'm not sure why you are writing guides, you seem to be in need of one yourself.

[@scottsspace5562]

First, thanks for dropping by and for the very kind comments! And I love sharing knowledge about game mechanics! We all learn from conversation. Let me repay the favor: the problem with your theory - besides the range benefit you mention - is the Shield Resistance and the Armor Reactive rating has to come into play. Here's just one small example to illustrate my point. A Large (L) Rail gun (v2) that shoots 50 (with 50% shield bypass) would have 25 - 1 SR = 24 shield damage. The 25 pass thru would suffer armor bypass - down to 20, then lose 4 from the AR rating to = 16. TOTAL DAMAGE (rounding down): 24 S, 16 A 3 small rail guns (v2) shoot 16 - would have (after 50% bypass) 8 - 1 SR = 7 shield damage each. The 8 shield bypass would be first reduced to 6.4 and then - 4 for the AR. Final value = 2.4 each TOTAL DAMAGE for 3: 21 S / 7.2 A The 3 small weapons have to pay the toll of SR and AR 3 times (instead of once). Sooooooo 40 total damage (L) v 28 total damage (3 S). Of course it will vary per weapon and it might break out even sometimes - but it is not a "Mistake" as you put it. It depends. Finally - I think the 2 competing factors (more quanitity v more penetration) would make for a good future investigation video! So thank you for the idea!