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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!
 
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Yes, surrendering. I'd like to play a race that's always surrendering to everyone while decimating their planets.

In doctor Who, there's the planet Tivoli, who pride themselves on being the most enslaved planet in history. They're not happy, unless they are an alien overlord's slaves :)
 
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In doctor Who, there's the planet Tivoli, who pride themselves on being the most enslaved planet in history. They're not happy, unless they have are an alien overlord's slaves :)

Star Trek: TNG had Mizar II that had been conquered six times in three centuries because of their pacifism.
 
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What's even more funny about the Tivolians, is that, according to the Doctor, their particular form of pacifism is actually entirely aggressive, but you'd have to watch the episode to really understand (series 6, episode entitled The God Complex).
 
They could be friendly mole people... or insectoid blood-sucking vampiric horrors! The suspense is killing me.
or the locusts from Gears of War or Necrons
 
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Here's a thing. The empire in the screenshot is only one planet. So if they get into a war with the underground civilisation and lose, how close are they to instant game over? Also, if they white peace or don't start fighting, how is the underground civilisation represented while the surface still belongs to the player?
 
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Here's a thing. The empire in the screenshot is only one planet. So if they get into a war with the underground civilisation and lose, how close are they to instant game over? Also, if they white peace or don't start fighting, how is the underground civilisation represented while the surface still belongs to the player?
Planets are in tiles, so presumably if they lose they can still survive while holding part of a planet.
 
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Here's a thing. The empire in the screenshot is only one planet. So if they get into a war with the underground civilisation and lose, how close are they to instant game over? Also, if they white peace or don't start fighting, how is the underground civilisation represented while the surface still belongs to the player?

Isn't the thing on the right the system summary rather than the empire summary? You know something contextual changing depending at which zoom level you are at? Zoom in show you what's in the system, zoom out show you something different. Plus it has zero armies, would be weird to be early game without an army on your own planet.
 
I feel like your opinions to deal with the Space Morlocks should depend on the armies you have on the planet. "Launch a pre-emptive strike" ... with what? If you have no armies on the planet

I hope my planets have at least decently sized PDFs that could handle a SIMPLE invasion of horrible monsters from the rocky depths.
 
I do, but when I told him to be done with it and post it I got told that I should go to the forums and complain :eek:
Interessting ways of work you have ;)
 
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Something I just realised now, after looking at all dev diaries (again ^^)
You are playing as humans here.
But your homeworld is NOT Earth, but instead some Earth-like planet called "Unity". Does that have a backstory? If yes, could that be explained a little in one of the next Dev Diaries?

*whisper* Why is it "Unity"?... that's not Earth!... according to Wikipedia, it's 1550 lightyears away from Earth... why are there humans?... what happened?... did they flee?... if yes, why and from who... or what...*whisper*

It has a mystery, and I am going to find it out! If not now, then at least when Stellaris comes out! :D
 
Something I just realised now, after looking at all dev diaries (again ^^)
You are playing as humans here.
But your homeworld is NOT Earth, but instead some Earth-like planet called "Unity". Does that have a backstory? If yes, could that be explained a little in one of the next Dev Diaries?

*whisper* Why is it "Unity"?... that's not Earth!... according to Wikipedia, it's 1550 lightyears away from Earth... why are there humans?... what happened?... did they flee?... if yes, why and from who... or what...*whisper*

It has a mystery, and I am going to find it out! If not now, then at least when Stellaris comes out! :D

I'm on my phone so it's a pain to look myself. But somebody gathered info about that in a post in I think a thread I started. I haven't started many so just skim through them and look for a post with bullet points iirc