• 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.

Stellaris Dev Diary #100 - Titans and Planet Destroyers

Hello everyone and welcome to this very special triple digit Stellaris development diary! Today's dev diary marks the start of talking about the Apocalypse Expansion that will be accompanying the 2.0 'Cherryh' update. We still can't give you an ETA on the release of either, and there's a fair bit to cover in the expansion before then, but we're getting closer. As this is the start of talking about paid features, I just want to take a moment to reiterate that everything talked about in dev diaries 91-99 (with the exception of Dev Diary #95 which was about Humanoids) were about the Cherryh update and all features and changes mentioned in these previous dev diaries are part of the free update, NOT the expansion. Everything mentioned in this dev diary will be part of the paid Apocalypse expansion, however. Please note that some of the screenshots in this dev diary feature placeholder art and icons.


Planet Destroyers (Apocalypse Feature)
As mentioned all the way back in Dev Diary #50 and again in Dev Diary #69, Planet Destroyers have been on our wish list for quite some time, but wasn't something we could make work with restrictive nature of the old warscore system. Now that this is no longer a concern thanks to the new war system we talked about in Dev Diary #93, we finally have our chance to implement this beloved sci-fi staple.

Planet Destroyers come in the form of a new ship class called a Colossus. Though nominally a military ship, the Colossus has no actual fleet combat capability, but is instead a single massive weapon solely dedicated to the purpose of laying waste to enemy planets. To build a Colossus, you must first already know how to build Titans (more on those below) and then take the Colossus Project Ascension Perk, which unlocks a special project to research and design your first Colossus. Each Colossus mounts a single World Devastator-class weapon, and during the course of the project you will be given the option to choose which such weapon you want to focus on, with five potential options to choose from:
  • World Cracker: Shatters a planet, leaving behind a broken debris field that can be mined for resources. Available to non-Pacifists.
  • Global Pacifier: Encases the planet in an impenetrable shield, permanently cutting it off from the rest of the galaxy. A research station can be built to study the planet afterwards.
  • Neutron Sweep: Destroys most higher forms of life on the planet but leaves the infrastructure intact for colonization. Available to non-Spiritualist, non-Pacifist empires.
  • God Ray: Converts all organic Pops on the planet to spiritualist and destroys all machine/synthetic pops, as well as massively increasing spiritualist ethics attraction on the planet for a time. Available to Spiritualist empires.
  • Nanobot Dispersal: Assimilates all Pops on the planet, causing it to defect to your empire with its newly cyborgized population. Only available to Driven Assimilators (and thus requires Synthetic Dawn as well).
2018_01_11_1.png

(Weapon icons are placeholders)

Additional types of World Devastator weapons that are potentially available to your empire can be researched as rare technologies after finishing the Colossus project. Once the project is complete, you will be able to build a Colossus at any Starbase with a shipyard where you have the Colossus Assembly Yards building built. Once built, the Colossus functions similar to a civilian ship, in that it is own fleet, and cannot be merged with other fleets. Each empire can only have a single Colossus active at the same time, but can build a new one if their active one is destroyed.

Colossi have no conventional armaments (though we are discussing a few medium/PD turrets to them), and their real purpose is to target enemy planets. When a Colossus is ordered to target a planet, it will travel straight towards it, ignoring enemy ships entirely even if they fire on it. The Colossus will travel to the planet, take up position and begin charging its weapon. The weapon takes quite some time to charge, giving enemy fleets a chance to try and destroy the Colossus to stop it from firing (though Colossi naturally can take a great deal of punishment, they are not invincible). Once the weapons is fully charged, it will fire, executing its effects (as described above) on the hapless planet. The Colossus is then free to continue on to the next planet if you so wish. Most Colossi weapons can only target planets owned by empires you are at war with, though some of them can target primitive worlds and the World Cracker can be used on uncolonized rock-type worlds (but will not always generate a mineral deposit in that case).
2018_01_11_2.png

2018_01_11_3.png

2018_01_11_4.png

(Animations & interface are partly WIP)

The system for creating World Devastator weapons is fully scriptable, and modders will be able to create their own planet-destroying/changing effects.

Titans (Apocalypse Feature)
Titans are another new ship class available in the Apocalypse expansion, but unlike the Colossus they are much more like conventional warships. Titans are researched through a regular tier 5 technology, and can be built in any Starbase with a shipyard and the Titan Assembly Yards building. Titans are massive flagships that come equipped with an array of heavy long-ranged weaponry and layer upon layer of shields and armor. Their front section has a single Titanic-size slot that can fit weapons even stronger than XL weapons, such as the immensely powerful Perdition Beam that can fire across a whole system and potentially destroy a battleship in a single shot. Titans also have an aura slot that can fit a single offensive or defensive aura that can buff friendly ships in the same fleet or debuff nearby enemy ships. Titans are intended to be the flagships of your fleets, and as such are limited in number: You can always field at least one Titan, plus an additional amount dependent on your overall naval capacity.
2018_01_11_5.png


Ion Cannons (Apocalypse Feature)
Finally, there is one last Apocalype feature to talk about for today: Ion Cannons. Ion Cannons are stations that can be built as part of the defense platform fleet of a Starbase. Each Ion Cannon is essentially a single massive gun emplacement that mounts a single Titanic weapon, allowing the Starbase to engage enemy fleets at massive ranges and greatly improving the Starbase's ability to deal with enemy Battleships and Titans.
2018_01_11_6.png


That's all for today! Next week we'll continue talking about Cherryh and Apocalypse expansion, on the topic of Marauders, Pirates and the Great Khan.
 
Last edited:
Play an old version, them. If you want to play with Titans, you'll need to buy the DLC.

I don't want titans. I do want the feature I already paid for.

I bet, that we will get a ground-combat-DLC in a few years with cool ... ... ... "ATACHMENTS" ... ... ... for our armies^^

This would not surprise me.
 
There is currently no way to unshield them (as that would make it a fairly useless variant).

Well, if it takes (at least) three or four years (of solid energy use or physics research or something) to unshield them, then they are out of the current fight but can also be occupied/conquered piecemeal later.

Plus the diplomatic penalties would probably be the lowest of all planetbusters, which could also be a point.
 
What about a "exterminatus" kind of super weapon?
Just to make an enemy planet a death world (kind of), making it unusable till a terraforming process.

Anyway everything sounds really interesting, good work.

Both Armageddon bombardment and the world cracker fulfill two different types of Exterminatus
 
That "feature" was battleships with auras. Battleships with auras are not in the latest version of the game. You can't have both updates and not updates. That's not how that work.

A feature was removed. Now if I want said feature, I have to pay for it again. I already paid for it. Making me pay twice for a feature is not how it works.
 
A feature was removed. Now if I want said feature, I have to pay for it again. I already paid for it. Making me pay twice for a feature is not how it works.

It was only removed from certain versions. If you want to play battleships with auras, you can just play the versions that have it.

This DLC does not even include battleships with auras.
 
It was only removed from certain versions. If you want to play battleships with auras, you can just play the versions that have it.

This DLC does not even include battleships with auras.

It includes a ship with an aura. In a DLC I have to pay for to access said ship with the feature that I already paid for: an aura, on a ship.
 
I still think that the Biomass converter to transform a planet to an uninhabitable planet that generates food and society research proportional to the population is best. You can even give non-hive mind empires a penalty if they exploit it because they are basically feeding off soylent green.

Maybe give other empires the option to terraform it back, or something.
I wouldn't mind an energy converter variant of this. Destroy Planet internet directly into power or power over time.
 
It includes a ship with an aura. In a DLC I have to pay for to access said ship with the feature that I already paid for: an aura, on a ship.

You don't have to.

If I were you I'd find a way to capitalise on pointless complaining. Then you'd be wading in piles of cash.
 
You don't have to.

If I were you I'd find a way to capitalise on pointless complaining. Then you'd be wading in piles of cash.

If I want to play the latest version of the game with a feature that I already paid for, I have to have the DLC, which contains the feature I've already paid for. A ship with an aura should not be paid-for content. I've already paid for it.
 
Couple questions about planet crackers:

When they destroy a habitat is the planet it was orbiting left intact or is it like the time in Lexx that the titular bioship's planet-destroying wave continued through a space station and blew up the planet behind it?

Can you get a discount on megastructure construction in systems where you've blown up the planets?
 
I've got to know- which one wins? The planet encased in a pacifier shield or the world cracking colossus laser? Because I really feel like the Sa-Matra battle platform, err, the world cracker should be able to defeat the slave shield, uh, I mean the pacifier shield. Oh snap. If a world is cut off in a slave shield and it's an energy planet, I hope the pops take charge and build farms, because otherwise they'll starve. And assuming there's a way to open the shielded world up (unboxing, yes please) will the pops have had an opportunity to change their ethics? Perhaps panic and infighting seized them or they've become pacifist.
 
Planet destroyers are interesting but can you weaponize your own Dyson Spheres instead? It shouldn't be hard to make interstellar planet-scorching lasers or launch Relativistic Killer Vehicles with them.