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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).
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(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).
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(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.
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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.
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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.
 
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I'm looking forward to seeing what achievements come out of all this stuff... some pretty interesting possibilities.
 
Would be really annoying though to reclaim the world and have no way of making it useful.
Perhaps there could be a costly, advanced project to learn how to take it down?
As annoying as reclaiming a shattered world.

Once the shield is in place, the surface ceases to exist. The POPs and structures on the planet are gone, both mechanically and practically.
 
Wiz, something I forgot to ask in the earlier dev diaries, but about that Fire Rate modifier when you're outnumbered by the enemy, will it be calculated based on the fleets' total power, number of ships or number of still-engaged ships?
 
Did anyone noticed the Chip base in the Titans auxillary slot. I'm wondering what this could be. It's not an Aura or a computer.
Quiet curious.
 
I think the fallen empire in my game understood it can't defeat me through common means and pre-ordered (and installed) this expansion pack without telling me. A giant titan within a 320k fleet looks scary, esp. when you don't have this tech.
 
Repost since I didn't know how to attract dev's attention, so ...

@Wiz
I am curious how big are the titan and colossus, can we have a screenshot of them beside a battleship please.
 
Not happy with this, at all. I mean I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, hoped for later, but eh. This is getting modded out. Except obviously for that one IM game for the inevitable achievement; because I'm a hypocrite like that.



Which is a safe assumption to make, considering there's always complaining about how "purging xeno scum from the galaxy" is too difficult, and the amount of all those "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS" and "DEUS VULT" memes.



Problem is, they will inevitably go one of two ways: either so game-breakingly OP that the only valid strategy will be rushing for one ASAP; or impractical/situational/expensive enough for that not to happen, but instead cause a tide of people whining about how they're underpowered and that by the time they get one, they should have paved the way for an easy "win" rather than being as underwhelming as they are. I simply don't see this turning out that well.



I, on the other hand, would hope every game with those to contain at least one "space Gandhi" empire. Just go the full monty, if we're going for the "staples" of the genre.



We'll really have to see just how sturdy those monstrosities are going to be, but I also think it's more likely that we're going from the era of doomstack to the era of "doomstack+colossus". Because everybody will assume "throw everything at the colossus to get it out of the picture asap" is what their opponent will do. It's a strategic target, since you can't spam them, just blowing up that one ship can turn the momentum of the war. And that's because if you have one of those floating about, you likely intend to use it, so your strategy at least in part depends on utilizing that one ship. Which of course means, losing it is what messes with your strategy, so your opponent will want to make sure you lose it. And if one's strategy (and counter-strategy) are built around one of these things, obviously they'll be at the center.

Now, a savvy player might use the damned thing as bait, to try and get the enemy fleets into an ambush, but that's some seriously inconveniently expensive bait.



That I could settle for. But still. I'd rather the devs did something mundanely QoL before this - something like an, I don't know, anomaly tracker. Those microscope icons are tiny, and when you're looking at the neighborhood of 60 stars you kinda sorta remember one should be in, a pain to find. Just feels like space e-peen sticks seem to be more important at the moment than actual functionality of the basic elements.

...I'll eventually quit grumbling about this, but I gotta get it out of my system. Obviously I'll be buying the bloody thing.

as a counterpoint:

1: the colosus super weapons can be balanced and wont nessisarilly be either useless or OP. consider other changes in 2.0. For example star fortresses, which are immune to super weapons (not being a planet) and other new and revived defensive measures which will both make it impossible for a lone colossus to attack any planets without support. In addition becuase the starfortresses can only exist in systems with colonizable planets and because much more of a systems economic and stratigic value comes from the starfortress than the planets themselves, the act of destroying planets could cripple you future expansion as well as the rewards from your own war goals. Consider that new galaxy generation rules, hyperlanes and fortress limits will likely create empires with much fewer colonized planets in the early and mid games at the very least... which means that destroying planets and therefore star-bases (which could be easily captured and which are likely set up at strategic choke points or wormhole entries or jump gate network hubs) can be both a beneficial or crippling move for your own future plans. Destroying your foes planets might win you that war but at the same time create an indefensible back door as you expand. I imagine that most wars will be fought in order to gain crontrol of stratigic star fortresses, lock down choke points and secure.

As for doom stacks, we will not be able to 'thow everything at the colosus' becuase players cant assign individual targets in combat. furthurmore no one will be able to invade or superweapon a planet without first captureing teh star fort in the system... so blowing up the planet destroy's the star fortress which by that time you have already captured and are reaping economic boons from. in this context colosuss become less of an offensive weapon and more of a scorched earth weapon, used to weaken a foe before retreat and truce. Or used a sort of 'fleet in being' you could start the fireing sequence or simply move the ship into a captured system in order to draw a foes fleet toward the colosuss while at the same time your own raid fleets strike at vacated systems. either way, the colosuss is really only useful in situations where there is no battle: destroying already captured planets, threatening and teasing opponant reactions Or cracking a heavily fortified fortress world with an interdictor feild (which you would only do to a larger enemy that you were trieing to rush down)
 
Repost since I didn't know how to attract dev's attention, so ...

@Wiz
I am curious how big are the titan and colossus, can we have a screenshot of them beside a battleship please.

You don't need Wiz, I can help you.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...witter-teasers.1051068/page-104#post-23691900

Here's the post I made a while back comparing screenshots, you can see all 3 of them for a sense of scale.

To put it to bluntly, the Colossus is indeed colossal.

If it interests you, they also showed a Titan in a fleet with 10 Battleships during the Thursday stream, as well as a Colossus, if you want to see how they look when you play. The Colossus has absolutely amazing animations as well.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing what achievements come out of all this stuff... some pretty interesting possibilities.
Probably going to be at least one for destroying a planet. If it's not a Star Wars reference, though, I will be disappointed.

*Star dead by death star*
"Crack a world with the World Cracker"

*Can never go home again*
"Shield another empire's home world, forever"
 
You don't need Wiz, I can help you.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...witter-teasers.1051068/page-104#post-23691900

Here's the post I made a while back comparing screenshots, you can see all 3 of them for a sense of scale.

To put it to bluntly, the Colossus is indeed colossal.

If it interests you, they also showed a Titan in a fleet with 10 Battleships during the Thursday stream, as well as a Colossus, if you want to see how they look when you play. The Colossus has absolutely amazing animations as well.

Thanks

It seems the name colossus is not usurped !
 
I am curious as I was thinking about Fallen Empire in Cherryh 2.0 game. They have their own ship model for Titan. Does that mean they have their own model for Colossus as well? I'd assume weapon type would reflect their ethics.
 
I am curious as I was thinking about Fallen Empire in Cherryh 2.0 game. They have their own ship model for Titan. Does that mean they have their own model for Colossus as well? I'd assume weapon type would reflect their ethics.

I really hope FEs get their own special, extra-colossal Colossus, with a unique superweapon that looks gorgeous when it blows your shit up.

Maybe something that simply vaporizes an entire planet into a dust cloud, but that's too similar to the planet cracker one. Any ideas?