Hello Console Edition Community!
It’s great to be back talking about Console Edition, and we hope to have news of a Toxoids Species Pack release date soon! While we’re waiting to cross our last T’s and dot our last i’s, we have some more details about the free 3.5 “Fornax” patch, which will be coming alongside Toxoids.
Today we’ll be talking about some new difficulty settings (for both new players and veteran players alike), changes coming to opening reliquaries (to make it easier to get your Galatron-on), and two new additions to the Lithoids Species Pack!
Let's get into it!
New Difficulty Settings
Since the most recent round of AI improvements, we’ve been seeing a lot of complaints about new players finding the AI too hard. These things are bound to happen; as we increase the threshold of what the AI can do, some players will undoubtedly fall behind. Rather than rolling back some of our changes to make the AI easier, we’ve added a new Civilian difficulty setting.
Civilian Difficulty further increases the bonuses players receive in Cadet difficulty, with an additional bonus towards completing First Contacts.
We are also aware that most people who take the time to read Development Diaries are not looking for the game to become easier, so we’ve also added two other difficulty settings:
Scaling Difficulty
Scaling difficulty will start the AI off with no bonuses, and gradually increase the AI difficulty until it matches the chosen setting in Galaxy Creation. Previously, it was a simple on/off toggle; it now sports three options: Off, Mid Game or Late Game. The Mid and Late Game settings will cause the AI to reach the chosen difficulty setting during that time of the game.
Difficulty Adjusted AI Modifiers
This is a new setting, which affects other modifiers applied to AI countries, and can dramatically increase the difficulty of the AI on higher difficulty levels. As an example, the Geothermal Fracking technology grants +20% Minerals from Miners. On Grand Admiral difficulty with this setting enabled, this technology would instead grant AI empires a 40% bonus.
“All” Crisis Setting
The last difficulty adjustment we’ve added to Stellaris: Console Edition is the addition of an “All” option to the Crisis Type setting. This option will spawn End-Game Crisis sequentially, with each spawned crisis being more difficult than the last.
The galaxy is counting on you. No pressure.
Golden Tiyanki Status
The Caravansary Caravan Coalition will now reward their most loyal patrons with Golden Tiyanki status. Those who have purchased a sufficient number of Reliquaries will now be granted the honor of being able to purchase as many as they like, directly for credits, with no more cooldowns for their best customers.
The cost per-Reliquary will increase as you buy more, so they can get pretty expensive, but this should make certain Reliquary-dependent achievements easier to come by.
Sedimental Things
As part of the Custodian work for 3.5 “Fornax” we’ve also added two new abilities for Lithoids, both of which also require the Plantoids Species Pack.
Lithoid Radiotrophic
We’ve heard many community-comments that sentient rocks should be able to thrive in radioactive conditions, and we agree. In 3.5 “Fornax”, Lithoids can now use the Radiotrophic trait, which reduces their upkeep on Tomb worlds.
Crystallization
We’ve also taken the effects from Budding, and added them to Lithoids for good measure, in a new species trait called Crystallization. Crystallization adds a small amount of pop assembly per Lithoid on the planet with the trait.
That’s it for this week, tune in next week where we’ll maybe have what you all have been waiting for!
It’s great to be back talking about Console Edition, and we hope to have news of a Toxoids Species Pack release date soon! While we’re waiting to cross our last T’s and dot our last i’s, we have some more details about the free 3.5 “Fornax” patch, which will be coming alongside Toxoids.
Today we’ll be talking about some new difficulty settings (for both new players and veteran players alike), changes coming to opening reliquaries (to make it easier to get your Galatron-on), and two new additions to the Lithoids Species Pack!
Let's get into it!
New Difficulty Settings
Since the most recent round of AI improvements, we’ve been seeing a lot of complaints about new players finding the AI too hard. These things are bound to happen; as we increase the threshold of what the AI can do, some players will undoubtedly fall behind. Rather than rolling back some of our changes to make the AI easier, we’ve added a new Civilian difficulty setting.
Civilian Difficulty further increases the bonuses players receive in Cadet difficulty, with an additional bonus towards completing First Contacts.
We are also aware that most people who take the time to read Development Diaries are not looking for the game to become easier, so we’ve also added two other difficulty settings:
Scaling Difficulty
Scaling difficulty will start the AI off with no bonuses, and gradually increase the AI difficulty until it matches the chosen setting in Galaxy Creation. Previously, it was a simple on/off toggle; it now sports three options: Off, Mid Game or Late Game. The Mid and Late Game settings will cause the AI to reach the chosen difficulty setting during that time of the game.
Difficulty Adjusted AI Modifiers
This is a new setting, which affects other modifiers applied to AI countries, and can dramatically increase the difficulty of the AI on higher difficulty levels. As an example, the Geothermal Fracking technology grants +20% Minerals from Miners. On Grand Admiral difficulty with this setting enabled, this technology would instead grant AI empires a 40% bonus.
“All” Crisis Setting
The last difficulty adjustment we’ve added to Stellaris: Console Edition is the addition of an “All” option to the Crisis Type setting. This option will spawn End-Game Crisis sequentially, with each spawned crisis being more difficult than the last.
The galaxy is counting on you. No pressure.
Golden Tiyanki Status
The Caravansary Caravan Coalition will now reward their most loyal patrons with Golden Tiyanki status. Those who have purchased a sufficient number of Reliquaries will now be granted the honor of being able to purchase as many as they like, directly for credits, with no more cooldowns for their best customers.
The cost per-Reliquary will increase as you buy more, so they can get pretty expensive, but this should make certain Reliquary-dependent achievements easier to come by.
Sedimental Things
As part of the Custodian work for 3.5 “Fornax” we’ve also added two new abilities for Lithoids, both of which also require the Plantoids Species Pack.
Lithoid Radiotrophic
We’ve heard many community-comments that sentient rocks should be able to thrive in radioactive conditions, and we agree. In 3.5 “Fornax”, Lithoids can now use the Radiotrophic trait, which reduces their upkeep on Tomb worlds.
Crystallization
We’ve also taken the effects from Budding, and added them to Lithoids for good measure, in a new species trait called Crystallization. Crystallization adds a small amount of pop assembly per Lithoid on the planet with the trait.
That’s it for this week, tune in next week where we’ll maybe have what you all have been waiting for!
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