Hello Console Edition Community!
In the free patch coming alongside Overlord - Coming Soon™ - there are some significant changes coming to the vassalization mechanics in Stellaris: Console Edition that we should go over.
Previously, being vassalized in Stellaris was merely a slow path to decline and eventually a “Game Over” screen. Being a subject didn’t offer them enough benefits, nor did they have the freedom necessary to be enjoyable to play. With Overlord, we had the opportunity to go back and rework some of these systems to add benefits to being and having vassals, as well as making integration less of an inevitable outcome of being vassalized.
The new Agreements Tab.. shiny!
Terms of Vassalization
Both the Overlord and the Subject will be able to propose alterations of the exact terms of their vassalization contact, as long as it’s a contract with another regular empire. The Great Khan, Awakened Empires and other special countries do not allow haggling about the terms of their agreements.
Subject contracts start with a “preset”. These are the basic subjugation types that you know from before - Vassal, Subsidiary, Tributary, Protectorate. (Overlord adds three speciality Vassal types, but we’ll get into these next week.) Presets have a list of default terms, and can have additional unique effects tied to them, like how Protectorates gain a massive bonus to research until they catch up to their overlord.
The default terms of contract presets may have changed a bit from the old system to better fit the new. We’ve done our best to ensure that anything you can do right now with your vassals remains possible.
Negotiable Terms:
Some subject types have fixed, minimum, or maximum terms - Tributaries, Subsidiaries, and Prospectoria, for example, must always provide their overlord at least 30% of their basic resources (energy, minerals, and food) in tribute. Others can be restricted by civics or for other reasons - for example, overlords with the Feudal Society civic cannot select the Expansion Prohibited term, must join in their subject wars to some degree, and must allow their subjects some degree of diplomatic freedom.
Different terms affect a subject’s Loyalty, and have an immediate impact as well as over time. For example, the Independent Diplomacy term grants 5 Loyalty and another +0.5 Loyalty per month. If you’re asking your subject to do something they are ideologically opposed to, those terms may cost extra loyalty, though the reverse is also true in a few cases.
Terms that favor the Subject empire encourages Subjects to be more Loyal.
Empires can propose a change in terms with a five year cooldown at a cost of some Influence.
Subjugation Policy
Another change coming in the next version of Console Edition is the addition of the Subjugation War Terms policy. This policy sets the default Subject Agreement that your empire uses, should you become an Overlord by means that are.. Less than diplomatic. This agreement can still be changed after the agreement timer runs out.
The policy options are Oppressive Vassalage, Balanced Vassalage and Benevolent Vassalage.
Loyalty
Loyalty is the “currency” used between Overlord and Subject. Mainly used for Specialist Vassals to level up over time (more on this next week), it is beneficial for all Overlords to be aware of their subjects’ loyalty. Loyalty is mainly determined by the subject agreement between Overlord and Subject, but Ethical compatibility plays a role as well, with more loyal vassals being more willing to contribute to their Overlord’s empire than disloyal vassals.
Loyalty can also be “spent” in trade agreements, allowing you to strong-arm your subjects into agreements they wouldn’t otherwise agree to.
You can even double-down on this, and request a public Pledge of Loyalty from your subjects, which will make them even more loyal over time.
There are some other options here as well…
As a counterpoint, disloyal vassals may seek out ways to free themselves from your tyranny, and pledge Secret Fealty to one of your rivals in the hopes they will declare an Allegiance war against you.
I pledge Secret Fealty to Montu
An Allegiance war is a war declared by a third Empire, where at least one of the Subjects has sworn Secret Fealty to that empire, and this third Empire fights the Subject(s)’ Overlord for control of the subject, with the subject’s help.
Divided Patronage
Like herding cats, having many subjects is hard work, this is where the Divided Patronage modifier comes in. If an Overlord has multiple Subjects, each subject gets -1 monthly Loyalty for every other subject of that Overlord.
This penalty can be removed with the Feudal Society or Franchising Civics, or by choosing the Shared Destiny Ascension Perk.
More on Holdings
As we’ve previously mentioned, Holdings are constructions built on a Subject’s planets by their Overlord. The number of Holdings allowed in a Subject’s empire range from 0 to 4 (2-4 requires Overlord), and is controlled by the Subject Agreement between the Subject and Overlord.
Similar to Branch Offices, Holdings built on a Subject’s planet can benefit both Empires, or may be Beneficial to only the Overlord. Some Holdings will positively or negatively affect Loyalty to the Overlord, so be sure to check what you’re choosing to build carefully.
There are over 20 Holdings in total, some of which are included in the base-game, others are restricted to Specialty Vassal types, while others are included in previously released DLC. The Custodian team had a field day adding thematic Holdings for previously released DLC, and while it’s far too much information to get into here, you can find them all listed here on the Stellaris Wiki!
A sampling of some of the Holdings
That’s it for this week, be sure to join us next week when we’ll finally start talking about the content coming in the Overlord expansion!
In the free patch coming alongside Overlord - Coming Soon™ - there are some significant changes coming to the vassalization mechanics in Stellaris: Console Edition that we should go over.
Previously, being vassalized in Stellaris was merely a slow path to decline and eventually a “Game Over” screen. Being a subject didn’t offer them enough benefits, nor did they have the freedom necessary to be enjoyable to play. With Overlord, we had the opportunity to go back and rework some of these systems to add benefits to being and having vassals, as well as making integration less of an inevitable outcome of being vassalized.
The new Agreements Tab.. shiny!
Terms of Vassalization
Both the Overlord and the Subject will be able to propose alterations of the exact terms of their vassalization contact, as long as it’s a contract with another regular empire. The Great Khan, Awakened Empires and other special countries do not allow haggling about the terms of their agreements.
Subject contracts start with a “preset”. These are the basic subjugation types that you know from before - Vassal, Subsidiary, Tributary, Protectorate. (Overlord adds three speciality Vassal types, but we’ll get into these next week.) Presets have a list of default terms, and can have additional unique effects tied to them, like how Protectorates gain a massive bonus to research until they catch up to their overlord.
The default terms of contract presets may have changed a bit from the old system to better fit the new. We’ve done our best to ensure that anything you can do right now with your vassals remains possible.
Negotiable Terms:
- Subject Integration
- Integration Permitted - Subject is allowed to be vassalized
- Integration Prohibited - This is the default setting for all vassalization contracts, in a major change from previous versions, and must be explicitly turned on in contract negotiations, except if you have the Oppressive Vassalization policy set (more on this below) and Subjugate an empire through war
- Diplomatic Freedom
- Limited Diplomacy - Subject may not engage in diplomacy with other empires, nor may it vote independently in Federations or the Galactic Community and must follow its Overlord
- Restricted Voting - Subject may engage in most types of diplomacy, but must vote with its Overlord in Federations and the Galactic Community
- Independent Diplomacy - Subject is free to engage in diplomacy with other empires, and vote independently
- Expansion
- Expansion Prohibited - Subject may not expand
- Expansion Regulated - Subject may expand, but must pay Influence to their Overlord
- Expansion Permitted - Subject is Free to Expand
- Resource Contributions - are split into four categories, Basic (Energy, Minerals, Food), Advanced (Alloys, Consumer Goods), Research, and Strategic Resources and are either paid from the Overlord to the Subject as a subsidy, or from the Subject to the Overlord as a tribute. Percentages are percentages of the Subject’s income, and paying a Subsidy or Tribute will block trades of those types of resources between Overlord and Subject.
- Overlord/Subject Conflicts - Are the Overlord and Subject required to join each other’s wars, and which types of wars? There are four options: None, Defensive, Offensive, and All.
- Holdings Limit - Holdings are a new type of construction, similar to Branch Offices, but their number is limited by the Subject Agreement (0 to 4) and may only be constructed by an Overlord on their Subject’s planets. You may choose to build them on specific worlds, or building them through the Subject Agreements tab automatically constructs them on a Subject’s Capitol.
- Note: Building more than one Holding in a Subject requires Overlord
- Shared Sensors
- Independent Sensors - Overlord and Subject do not share sensor information
- Unified Sensors - Overlord and Subject share sensor information
Some subject types have fixed, minimum, or maximum terms - Tributaries, Subsidiaries, and Prospectoria, for example, must always provide their overlord at least 30% of their basic resources (energy, minerals, and food) in tribute. Others can be restricted by civics or for other reasons - for example, overlords with the Feudal Society civic cannot select the Expansion Prohibited term, must join in their subject wars to some degree, and must allow their subjects some degree of diplomatic freedom.
Different terms affect a subject’s Loyalty, and have an immediate impact as well as over time. For example, the Independent Diplomacy term grants 5 Loyalty and another +0.5 Loyalty per month. If you’re asking your subject to do something they are ideologically opposed to, those terms may cost extra loyalty, though the reverse is also true in a few cases.
Terms that favor the Subject empire encourages Subjects to be more Loyal.
Subjugation Policy
Another change coming in the next version of Console Edition is the addition of the Subjugation War Terms policy. This policy sets the default Subject Agreement that your empire uses, should you become an Overlord by means that are.. Less than diplomatic. This agreement can still be changed after the agreement timer runs out.
The policy options are Oppressive Vassalage, Balanced Vassalage and Benevolent Vassalage.
Loyalty
Loyalty is the “currency” used between Overlord and Subject. Mainly used for Specialist Vassals to level up over time (more on this next week), it is beneficial for all Overlords to be aware of their subjects’ loyalty. Loyalty is mainly determined by the subject agreement between Overlord and Subject, but Ethical compatibility plays a role as well, with more loyal vassals being more willing to contribute to their Overlord’s empire than disloyal vassals.
Loyalty can also be “spent” in trade agreements, allowing you to strong-arm your subjects into agreements they wouldn’t otherwise agree to.
You can even double-down on this, and request a public Pledge of Loyalty from your subjects, which will make them even more loyal over time.
There are some other options here as well…
As a counterpoint, disloyal vassals may seek out ways to free themselves from your tyranny, and pledge Secret Fealty to one of your rivals in the hopes they will declare an Allegiance war against you.
I pledge Secret Fealty to Montu
An Allegiance war is a war declared by a third Empire, where at least one of the Subjects has sworn Secret Fealty to that empire, and this third Empire fights the Subject(s)’ Overlord for control of the subject, with the subject’s help.
Divided Patronage
Like herding cats, having many subjects is hard work, this is where the Divided Patronage modifier comes in. If an Overlord has multiple Subjects, each subject gets -1 monthly Loyalty for every other subject of that Overlord.
This penalty can be removed with the Feudal Society or Franchising Civics, or by choosing the Shared Destiny Ascension Perk.
More on Holdings
As we’ve previously mentioned, Holdings are constructions built on a Subject’s planets by their Overlord. The number of Holdings allowed in a Subject’s empire range from 0 to 4 (2-4 requires Overlord), and is controlled by the Subject Agreement between the Subject and Overlord.
Similar to Branch Offices, Holdings built on a Subject’s planet can benefit both Empires, or may be Beneficial to only the Overlord. Some Holdings will positively or negatively affect Loyalty to the Overlord, so be sure to check what you’re choosing to build carefully.
There are over 20 Holdings in total, some of which are included in the base-game, others are restricted to Specialty Vassal types, while others are included in previously released DLC. The Custodian team had a field day adding thematic Holdings for previously released DLC, and while it’s far too much information to get into here, you can find them all listed here on the Stellaris Wiki!
A sampling of some of the Holdings
That’s it for this week, be sure to join us next week when we’ll finally start talking about the content coming in the Overlord expansion!
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