So, I’ve played a bit of Distant Worlds 2 here and there—less then 20 hours—but it never really clicked for me. I wanna give it a proper in-depth try again since its had quite a few updates and new species and a expansion added since I last played.
I kinda struggle to find the right ballance between automation and manual gameplay, which makes it harder to get into. Honestly, I’m abit suprised I’ve struggled with it so much, but something just feels like its missing for me.
For context, I’m pretty fond of Stellaris/ Crusader Kings 3 and have played those for a couple hundred hours, plus I have played various Space 4x games like Endless Space, GalCiv etc.
Any input - tips or tricks are welcome . Thanks in advance 
You leave automation as it is by default, maybe add few more options so the game will ask you to do it and then you just chill over watching as your empire grows. Automation is also much better in DW2 than in DW1, it won't bankrupt you colonising shitty worlds and it even can use fleets to attack (though in DW1 it was probably fault of shitty game mechanics since i rarily could make my fleets to attack even on manual).
I've been waiting on this one for a good sale, I had hoped it would get fixed up with time but even recent reviews are talking about how unhelpful the UI design is. Which might be why it's not clicking for you honestly, changing the UI made Dwarf Fortress accessible to me and I'm afraid of dropping as much as they're asking for a game I can't figure out.
You should give X4 Foundations a try if you can't get into it again
While X4 looks cool just from a glance it seems like a game I would need to watch a 3h youtube guide first just to get a basic understanding of the game. (Not opposed to do the work to get into the game ..just dont really have the time for that atm)
Thanks for the recommendation though.
