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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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@Wiz, something that occurred to me recently: what happens if you blow up a Spiritualist Fallen Empire's Holy World?

I think they will be very gratefull because noone will ever colonise them again. They will be so gratefull that they will send all their fleets to your homeworld to thank you personally.
 
That makes me wonder how they would react if you shield the holy worlds. Is that a positive or a negative ?

As far as you touch them with your filthy heretics hands - you get puched. I can imagine them doing it themselves though. Or asking someone, who can, to do it with their permission.
 
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Sorry for the poor quality. Also not sorry.

I'd say shielding the holy world is worse than colonizing it, since the holy guardians can no longer declare that it's un-colonizable for lesser races.
 
Loving the new Ideas. But the Jedi in me has concerns

The Jedi in me : The fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side. Rejoice for those around us who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy, the shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

=)
 
One thing that made me think: The titan is specialized in, as Wiz himself said, "cracking starbases". So why is it part of the DLC?
 
One thing that made me think: The titan is specialized in, as Wiz himself said, "cracking starbases". So why is it part of the DLC?
A bit like a Dyson sphere is specialized in energy production.
Titans are not mandatory for that, they are just good at it. You can probably destroy even the most well defended starbase with enough X weapons.
The DLC theme is big things for a bigger war. Titans go well with it. Like for instance mega structures went well with utopia.
 
One thing that made me think: The titan is specialized in, as Wiz himself said, "cracking starbases". So why is it part of the DLC?

Honest answer: Because something had to be taken from the new content to be sold, so Titans were one of those things. They're entirely optional in the sense that you don't actually need them to take starbases, kind of like how you don't need a planet cracker to deal with a heavily fortified planet, they just give you some options to play around with.

I make it sound lame, but it is necessary to make money somehow to continue developing the game like this.

I think the issue here was that virtually everything we're getting is essential, so you get a similar situation as with Utopia where an optional but significant gameplay mechanic ends up being paywalled.

Not that I'm complaining, it's good because it means all the content is spot on and meaningful.
 
@Wiz
With each update and dlc you guys release this game gets better and better. I can't wait for this update to come out.

However, each update has increased the performance requirements from my system.
In Stellaris 1.0 I could run the game high quality with over a dozen AI in a medium galaxy. As of now I'm playing on a tiny galaxy with 6 AI and low graphics and the mid-late game lag is a nightmare unless I play on normal speed, which often work unless in combat.
I have researched online to try to understand the cause of the lag and found that many others with decent computers are also having similar issues.
Is it possible for you guys at paradox to look into this at some point, maybe after this update?

Cheers
 
Freakin' awesome! Will the Colossi have the ability to damage or destroy Mega-Structures? It'd be a great tool in the late game to deal with other empires who have Sensor Platforms and Dyson Spheres.
 
Humanoids: Star Trek sips
Apocalypse: Star Wars weapons
 
Devouring Swarm is sad with all these superweapons. They either destroys all the food, or blocks the food in cages! They really need some super-weapon of their own, that consumes everything - maybe kill all pops, remove all food bonuses on tiles, maybe turns the planet to desert/arctic, but gives some +food/month for empire for 5-10 years.