• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Dev Diary #8 - The Situation Log and Special Projects

Fellow sentients!

Do not be alarmed. I have been summoned to your pitiful quaint planet to tell you a little bit about Special Projects and the Situation Log.

As you play the game and venture out into the galaxy, you will eventually come upon Special Projects. These projects are sometimes spawned by the Anomalies that were discussed in last week’s Dev Diary, but they can also be triggered by other events. They typically represent a specific action that can be performed by the player, and in that respect they function a bit like the decisions you might find in some of our other games.

Most projects are centered around a location (often a planet, but it could also be an object in space), and many require the presence of a Science Ship and a skilled Scientist before they can be started. Others may require the presence of a warship, or a troop transport, or something else entirely. It depends on the project.

stellaris_dev_diary_08_02_20151109_event.jpg


While the cost of some projects is only a time investment, others will require research efforts within a particular field, such as physics, to complete. Technology research progress is diverted to the project at the expense of your current technology research in that field, temporarily halting all progress. In other words, you may want to hold off on that physics project for a while if you are just about to finish researching a new shield system!

A few examples of Special Projects could be boarding and investigating a derelict space hulk, performing an archeological dig on the homeworld of a dead civilization… or perhaps fishing something out of the atmosphere of a gas giant. Projects can also appear on your colony worlds, and they may be time sensitive.

So what do you get for completing a Special Project? Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, that depends on the project. You might get an advanced alien warship, or a new technology, or any number of other bonuses and advantages. Sometimes the reward might simply be staving off an imminent disaster on one of your colonies.

To help players keep track these projects, we have added something called the Situation Log to the game. This screen works like a quest log in many ways, and you will find all currently available Special Projects here. You can also follow your progress in certain event chains, with various Points of Interest listed that can be visually tracked on the map. A Point of Interest could be a strange signal emanating from a distant star system, which will remain in your log until you send someone to investigate.

stellaris_dev_diary_08_01_20151109_situation_log.jpg


That’s it for now. Next week, renowned interstellar gangster Daniel “grekulf” Moregård will take time out of his busy schedule to tell you more about how planets work in Stellaris - including planet modifiers, surface tiles, buildings and resource collection!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • 127
  • 41
  • 2
Reactions:
Subterraneans you say?


Looks good, I just hope there's really a lot of different Situations/Projects and don't have obvious choices to make so these don't become repetitive in the long run.
 
  • 6
  • 1
Reactions:
Awesome stuff, I particularly like the situation log to keep track of things! I can't help but get super amped about everything you guys reveal for this game.
 
Urgh surface building tiles? I hate those, why can't it just be like EU4's building slots? I'm just gonna slap a building down anywhere and forget, I'm not going to bother thinking about which tile to place it on...
 
  • 4
  • 3
Reactions:
They could be friendly mole people... or insectoid blood-sucking vampiric horrors! The suspense is killing me.

Or horrific mole people, or friendly insectoid blood-sucking vampires.
 
  • 4
Reactions:
Urgh surface building tiles? I hate those, why can't it just be like EU4's building slots? I'm just gonna slap a building down anywhere and forget, I'm not going to bother thinking about which tile to place it on...

For some reason I like that, I have always found something primally entartaining in turning the great swathes if land into a sandbox. From basic 'paint the land in farms' from Civ to deep terraforming which I'll hope we find in Stellaris, I like to design worlds (to a reasonable extent, I am not a fan of Minecraft :p )

I just hope the facilities will make sense, be useful and that we'll be able to build on the planetary grid of Earth - 'ohh let's build biosphere preserve on the Amazon tile and put Grand Accelerators in China and factories in Nigeria'

If we also could influence weather and climate (->terraforming) and shape Mars, ohhhh
 
  • 2
Reactions:
God dammit you guys always manage to get me more hyped for this game with dev dairy! by release my hype will reach uncontrollable levels!
 
  • 1
Reactions:
I really like the Situation Log. It gives me a feeling of Endless Legend.

Is it just me, or system changed from ten ticks per day to tick = day?
 
  • 1
Reactions:
One thing I noticed in the screenshots of this DD might cause some err... consternation among people. Now in previous DDs along with Dev statements we see that when you start a game you get along with your home planet, a science ship, a constructor ship, and a small military fleet. In this DD however, we see that the science ship and military fleet is still around but the constructor is gone. We do see a small space station in the relative vicinity of the home planet.

This leads me to conclude that constructors in Stellaris function in the same way as constructors in Galciv do, in order to build and/or improve a space station a constructor is consumed upon it's use. Now this mechanic in Galciv is not the most popular one to say the least, and I myself am not too fond of having to set up a 40-constructor train just to get one starbase up to decent snuff.

Now while this mechanic does appear to be present in Stellaris as well, I am not ready to get my pitchforks out yet so to speak. It's quite possible that it's been tempered by maybe, having the constructor have more than one use, either in the beginning or later on, or that space stations are more specialized and have fewer upgrades then the seemingly infinite +5 to this we had in Galciv, however it does seem that love it or hate it the mechanic is most definitely present.

Edit: For anyone reading a dev clarified further down the thread that the mechanic is NOT PRESENT, I apologize if I gave anyone some undue indigestion.
 
Last edited:
  • 4
  • 2
Reactions:
pds_giving_a_shit.jpg


So, right here, you see those yellow patches on the night side? That, my friends, is the light of settlements visible on the night side of a colonized world. It's right there on the game map people.

That is attention to detail.

That is paradox going that extra mile. That is paradox saying "no, it's not enough to just remake Moo2/Civ in space". That is paradox, fundamentally, giving a shit.

spaceships.jpg


The scale of ships compared to planet is much nicer in this one as well. I don't know if it's a different view mode, some trick of scale or if it's really just been changed in the latest builds but it looks much better now. I still think the space station there is a bit large but honestly I think there are probably usability issues with making it any smaller so I don't have a problem with it.

Also, Space Morlocks are a thing, apparently. So that's good too.
 
  • 17
  • 1
Reactions:
Interesting DD. I'm looking forward to next week to hear more planets and resources.