The Hyperdrives used by the Terrakin and Saar function much like the warp drive in Star Trek - it's faster than slowboating with thrusters, but still slower than everything else, and consumes energy as the ship moves through hyperspace.
The "Fling" beacons used by the Oko can catapult a ship extreme distances for little energy, but can only be mounted on orbitals - in essence, you fire your ships at their destination like a railgun - once a ship reaches its destination, it has to rely on standard thrusters for movement or its return journey unless you have another beacon there.This is also the only method that can be used for trade. The Mono assemble jump gates (previously, only Remnants possessed gates) which must be flown to their destination, then stopped before being linked up, which will then provide instantaneous travel between any gate.Faster-Than-Light Travel: Several flavors, all of which require FTL Energy, which is a global resource that is slowly built up and can be stored.Expansion Pack: Wake of the Heralds, which adds two new races - the Heralds and the First - a new type of Faster-Than-Light Travel, new technology, an attitudes system that causes ones actions' and political alignment to add bonuses or maluses, and a cooperative survival map.Ships still need to be near a friendly planet to reload their "Supply" (ammunition, fuel, etc) and restore their support ship roster. Easy Logistics: Ships immediately receive researched stat bonuses when within friendly territory, to counter the ad-infinitum retrofitting that plagued SR1's endgame, where the ships you produced were obsolete within minutes.The Dog Bites Back: The Influence system in SR2 allows losing (but influential) empires to use diplomacy against their aggressor.Big Dumb Object: Neutral "Seed" ships will occasionally build unique upgrades that players can steal and utilize, such as a massive telescope to spy on several systems at once from across the galaxy.Their engagement AI can be re-activated with an option in the prematch setup. Artificial Stupidity: By default, Remnant fleets do not chase down ships and will not try to glass planets being colonized in their system, only shooting at ships that approach.Arcology: A mid-game research allows you to build imperial megacities that go from below the earth, all the way into the sky.2-D Space: Fleets align themselves along the galactic plane, though ships can drift out of alignment and debris will fly in whatever direction it pleases.The often brick-headed and stubborn AI of the first game is far more cooperative and can form alliances or submit to aggressors, becoming a puppet state. You can even force votes through to annex other player's territory it's for the greater good, after all. Only the absolute largest planetary structures require the player's intervention to build.ĭiplomacy takes the form of a large minigame of sorts players propose a treaty such as investigating another player's territory, which all players can vote on and attach riders and clauses to by expending Influence. export artifacts, and it'll build research centers.
It strives to avoid the Command & Conquer Economy, with most planetary buildings being built by the demands of incoming imports via the "Pressure" system export metals to a planet, and it'll build factories.
The Unstable Equilibrium research system of the game has been significantly toned down, with flat bonuses rather than the continuously scaling bonuses. Like the original, it has a heavy focus on the Design-It-Yourself Equipment, allowing players to make ships to take any size - from a Coke can to the size of the galaxy - or function, from Asteroid Miners to planet killers. The First - Post-physical virtuals added in the Expansion Pack.They colonize via refugee ships jumping in at random, and can send resources back to their crumbling civilizations for bonuses. Heralds - Intergalactic refugees, added in the Expansion Pack.They do not utilize planets, but instead build orbitals around it via massive motherships to extract resources. Can instantly colonize planets, but cannot make use of orbital shipyards and must build new population from planetary labor. Rather than orbital outposts, they construct missionaries that send ships to allies and their own planets for bonuses.