Hello Console Edition Community!
Hope you enjoyed last week’s Art of Toxoids Dev Diary. The portraits and other artwork in the Toxoids Species Pack is really top-notch, our artists here at PDX HQ are really pushing the bar of what’s possible in Stellaris.
Today we’re going to be looking at some of the gameplay features included in Toxoids. These traits fit very nicely into the pack’s strong themes of rampant genetic engineering, and short term gains over long term stability.
Three of these traits will be available for Biological and Lithoid species in empire selection, with the fourth - Exotic Metabolism - only becoming available after you have achieved Genetic Ascension.
It’s also worth mentioning that Toxoids includes 13 species traits that are unique to the Overtuned Origin, many of these traits are more powerful versions of existing traits, with a corresponding increase in trait point cost and/or a decrease in species lifespan to balance them out. We’ll go over these in two week’s time when we talk about the Overtuned Origin.
We’ve had one Brain, yes. But what about Second Brain?
The first trait we’re going to talk about today is Inorganic Breath. Making Exotic Gasses isn’t just for Lithoid pops anymore, now biological pops can be smelly as well! This trait makes your starting species produce Exotic Gasses through digestion, with a corresponding pop upkeep increase. Does anyone have a mint?
With the Incubators trait, your species will be born less-developed, and will rely on medical intervention and.. biological drives to fill population gaps in your empire. Pops with the Incubators trait will grow more quickly on sparsely populated worlds, but their interventions are complicated and get overwhelmed on densely populated worlds.
For the min-maxers out there, less than 7 pops is the ideal number of pops to have to get the
maximum benefit out of Incubators, over 7 pops and it’s -1% growth per pop.
With the Noxious trait, your species has evolved to be the ultimate bad neighbor and is loving it. Boasting increased minimum Habitability, increased Army Damage, and gaining 2% happiness per non-Noxious pop on the planet, your species truly enjoys being insufferable. The downside is an increase in housing usage, decreased Habitability cap, and -1% happiness to non-Noxious pops on the planet.
This is one issue with a bad neighbor that won’t be resolved by communication
Our final trait included in Toxoids is Exotic Metabolism. Keeping with the genetic modification theme, this trait is available only after achieving Genetic Ascension, and requires genetically modifying your species. By adding Exotic Gas upkeep to your species, your scientists have discovered a way to extend your species’ lifespan, increase growth rate, and increase their environmental tolerance.
As you can see, Toxoids is far more than just a “cosmetic pack”, adding new gameplay features that have never been explored before in Stellaris. In Toxoids, you will have to choose whether the short term benefits outweigh the long term consequences of your choices.
Speaking of long term consequences, next week we’ll be talking about the Civics coming in the Toxoids Species Pack on November 21st!
Hope you enjoyed last week’s Art of Toxoids Dev Diary. The portraits and other artwork in the Toxoids Species Pack is really top-notch, our artists here at PDX HQ are really pushing the bar of what’s possible in Stellaris.
Today we’re going to be looking at some of the gameplay features included in Toxoids. These traits fit very nicely into the pack’s strong themes of rampant genetic engineering, and short term gains over long term stability.
Three of these traits will be available for Biological and Lithoid species in empire selection, with the fourth - Exotic Metabolism - only becoming available after you have achieved Genetic Ascension.
It’s also worth mentioning that Toxoids includes 13 species traits that are unique to the Overtuned Origin, many of these traits are more powerful versions of existing traits, with a corresponding increase in trait point cost and/or a decrease in species lifespan to balance them out. We’ll go over these in two week’s time when we talk about the Overtuned Origin.
We’ve had one Brain, yes. But what about Second Brain?
The first trait we’re going to talk about today is Inorganic Breath. Making Exotic Gasses isn’t just for Lithoid pops anymore, now biological pops can be smelly as well! This trait makes your starting species produce Exotic Gasses through digestion, with a corresponding pop upkeep increase. Does anyone have a mint?
With the Incubators trait, your species will be born less-developed, and will rely on medical intervention and.. biological drives to fill population gaps in your empire. Pops with the Incubators trait will grow more quickly on sparsely populated worlds, but their interventions are complicated and get overwhelmed on densely populated worlds.
For the min-maxers out there, less than 7 pops is the ideal number of pops to have to get the
maximum benefit out of Incubators, over 7 pops and it’s -1% growth per pop.
With the Noxious trait, your species has evolved to be the ultimate bad neighbor and is loving it. Boasting increased minimum Habitability, increased Army Damage, and gaining 2% happiness per non-Noxious pop on the planet, your species truly enjoys being insufferable. The downside is an increase in housing usage, decreased Habitability cap, and -1% happiness to non-Noxious pops on the planet.
This is one issue with a bad neighbor that won’t be resolved by communication
Our final trait included in Toxoids is Exotic Metabolism. Keeping with the genetic modification theme, this trait is available only after achieving Genetic Ascension, and requires genetically modifying your species. By adding Exotic Gas upkeep to your species, your scientists have discovered a way to extend your species’ lifespan, increase growth rate, and increase their environmental tolerance.
As you can see, Toxoids is far more than just a “cosmetic pack”, adding new gameplay features that have never been explored before in Stellaris. In Toxoids, you will have to choose whether the short term benefits outweigh the long term consequences of your choices.
Speaking of long term consequences, next week we’ll be talking about the Civics coming in the Toxoids Species Pack on November 21st!
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