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Stellaris Dev Diary #102: Edicts, Campaigns and Unity Ambitions

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today, we continue talking about the Apocalypse expansion and 2.0 'Cherryh' update, on the topic of Edicts, Campaigns and Unity Ambitions.

Edict Changes (Cherryh Feature)
There will be a number of changes coming to Empire and Planetary Edicts in 2.0 'Cherryh', with the aim of both making Edicts more attractive to use, and increasing the number of useful things players have to spend their pooled Influence and Energy resources on. Firstly, we have moved most of the edicts out of the Planetary Edict category, keeping only a handful of Edicts that are either about dealing with a specific short-term problem (such as Unrest-reducing edicts) or executing a long-term or permanent effect (such as Consecrated Worlds or the new Land Clearance edict given by Mastery of Nature). Instead, a number of these edicts have become Empire Edicts.
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Empire Edicts have also been changed to work in the same way as Planetary Edicts, with an upfront cost and a duration rather than a monthly cost. The reason for this is that we wanted to ensure players always have a use for their pooled influence - an empire that is not using that influence on expanding through Starbases or Claims will be able to boost their empire in a variety of ways, including powerful resource-boosting edicts such as Production Targets and Capacity Overload. We decided to move away from the monthly cost because players tend to shy away from monthly costs that bring them into a negative balance, even if they are consistantly hitting their stockpile cap, and so ended up using Empire Edicts far less than they could actually afford to.

To make managing and renewing Edicts less of a hassle, we have added a message when an Edict (Empire or Planetary) expires.
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Campaigns (Cherryh Feature)
Campaigns are a new type of edict added in the Cherryh update. Campaigns are edicts that are unlocked by the Planetary Unification technology and cost energy instead of Influence. They typically have fairly situational effects, and are meant to be an additional use for stored energy.
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Unity Ambitions (Apocalypse Feature)
Unity Ambitions is another new type of edict added in the Apocalypse expansion. These are extremely powerful edicts that last 10 years and cost Unity to activate. You will get access to Unity Ambitions after researching the Ascension Theory society technology, and activating a Unity Ambition has a dynamic cost that is calculated in the exact same way as the cost for unlocking a new tradition (though activating an ambition will not raise the cost of future ambitions/traditions). Unity Ambitions are meant to give a use for Unity after the player has unlocked all the traditions they want to unlock, and to ensure the resource is never completely without use.
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That's all for today! Next week we'll continue talking about Cherryh and the Apocalypse expansion, on the topic of Civics and Ascension Perks.
 
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Some edicts could keep their monthly influence cost, like The Grand Fleet or Map the Stars, but other than that it seems very good
 
"We decided to move away from the monthly cost because players tend to shy away from monthly costs that bring them into a negative balance, even if they are consistantly hitting their stockpile cap" Haha, I'm this kind of player, even knowing that not always make sense... so these changes about edicts are very welcome! And the campaigns look good too. Looking forward to try them!

PS: also, as a relatively new player, first dev diary that I don't get lost at some point with a "can we really do that in the game?" face
 
The edict changes are fine I guess. I'm going to miss using planetary edicts to increase mineral, food, or energy output in the early game depending on the situation but I guess if I can do it for the whole empire, even better.

Not sure if I'll ever use campaigns in-game. I prefer to keep a large amount of energy stockpiled in case the worst happens and not sure the temporary benefits will be worth it. But then again, maybe they will be.

Unity Ambitions sound like they can be useful once I'm done with traditions. Don't care that ti's stuck behind a paywall since I plan to pay anyways (but if I wasn't, wouldn't miss it) but probably would have been better to make it a part of the DLC that added Traditions? So people who paid for that get it. I mean if your going to stick it behind a paywall...but not a big deal since it's part of the paid DLC.
 
By making edicts renewable with fixed cost per long period of time you are making them less attractive to use. It's not like everybody will stop from using, but experience will suffer. Let me give an example: if you have money, you use curator insight. But when the time comes, it is not a good feeling when you have to renew the contract and therefore loose some time and make unnecessary actions. I mean, that's a contract, but the fact that it has to be renewed instead of prolonged while active makes me crazy, especially if I detect it too late. Same is with edicts: that is terrible user experience when you have to remember all the costs and durations instead of just managing expenses.
 
To be honest, I expected more from Unity Ambitions. Something like the Artisans. An ongoing effect that not only gives you a bonus but also allows for additional events etc.
 
Isn't making the unity ambitions DLC maintaining the same problem that unity has always had in the base game, were you get everything you want and then are stuck with nothing else to use it for? I guess at least you still have the ascension perks to work towards now, but it seems like a bad idea to gate off part of the system like this like the most basic ascension perks were. They're such a small thing to make part of the DLC.
 
There is an internal task for this. We'll see if there's time for 2.0, otherwise it will happen later.

I would suggest making them a tabbed interface. Long-ass scrolling can be a bit tedious, suffice to say. And I HATE that.

If policies and/or edicts are still too long when made into their own tabs, then I would suggest making both sections as opposed to tabs and then make both or one of them tabbed based on types of each. For example, Edicts section would have tabs for each of the three types of edicts as you described here (Empire, Ambition, and Campaign edicts).

I am unsure on how to categorize the policies for the tabbing purpose. Probably a simplest way would be to divide them into Domestic (e.g. Food Stockpiling) and Military/Diplomatic category (e.g. War Philosophy and Orbital Bombardment).
 
So... I am no longer allowed to actually manage my planets one by one?
No more Planets solely focused on Research for example?

Just a broad ever expansive empire edict to force me into further choosing between fewer and fewer playstyles? Either Minerals or Research?
 
So... I am no longer allowed to actually manage my planets one by one?
No more Planets solely focused on Research for example?

Just a broad ever expansive empire edict to force me into further choosing between fewer and fewer playstyles? Either Minerals or Research?
Unless they seriously change the costs, you're actually paying about the same amount of influence for the same benefit that's applied globally instead of on a planet by planet basis. They just buffed the existing edicts to be global.
 
Unless they seriously change the costs, you're actually paying about the same amount of influence for the same benefit that's applied globally instead of on a planet by planet basis. They just buffed the existing edicts to be global.

It's already more expensive... and I somehow doubt it will be a static cost, that wouldn't make any sense because at that low it would make these edicts far to easy a boon...
One has to assume that these cost scale with the Number of the affected Objects.
 
It's already more expensive... and I somehow doubt it will be a static cost, that wouldn't make any sense because at that low it would make these edicts far to easy a boon...
One has to assume that these cost scale with the Number of the affected Objects.
That would only make sense if there was some way to produce more influence to scale at the same rate. Otherwise you'll never actually be able to spend influence on those edicts past a certain size. It isn't like any other resource in that you've got a finite pool of possible influence that you can potentially generate.
 
You guys should understand that Tradition costs are exponential. So that the Unity Ambitions will cost greatly less if you have fewer Traditions unlocked, regardless of what size empire you have. Some Traditions do offer additional sources of Unity, but generally, if the Ambition bonuses are good enough, it might just be better to avoid Traditions altogether, rush through the tech tree, and have lower-cost Ambitions when I get to them.

I already use a similar tactic with vassals. Acquire planets through conquest or a colonization spree, have them produce Unity for me, store up the Unity, unload the planets as gifts to my vassals, then unlock several Traditions all at the same time.
 
Isn't making the unity ambitions DLC maintaining the same problem that unity has always had in the base game, were you get everything you want and then are stuck with nothing else to use it for? I guess at least you still have the ascension perks to work towards now, but it seems like a bad idea to gate off part of the system like this like the most basic ascension perks were. They're such a small thing to make part of the DLC.

I kind of agree with this. I get that you need something for the paid DLC, but the unity ambitions feel more like fixing a problem with an existing system than adding a new one that expands on the game.
 
Isn't making the unity ambitions DLC maintaining the same problem that unity has always had in the base game, were you get everything you want and then are stuck with nothing else to use it for? I guess at least you still have the ascension perks to work towards now, but it seems like a bad idea to gate off part of the system like this like the most basic ascension perks were. They're such a small thing to make part of the DLC.

How would you feel about trading this for the ability to put FTL-inhibitors on planets, trade a fix for a cool thing that only adds to the game so to speak.
 
There should be a negative "conspiracy theorist" trait that makes them randomly start events such as them protesting about government dishonesty or have one of their ridiculous theories go viral so you'd have to either suffer reduced happiness modifiers for a year or so, or pay an influence cost to silence them.
 
With the update adding a prompt when edicts run out, any chance we can get a prompt for when enclave-purchased buffs run out, too? There have been far too many times where the Curator empire-wide buff ran out and I've failed to notice for several years.
 
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How would you feel about trading this for the ability to put FTL-inhibitors on planets, trade a fix for a cool thing that only adds to the game so to speak.
I'm confused, what does this have to do with unity edicts? Also, if you can't use FTL-inhibitors the new fortress defense system doesn't work anymore. Ships could just fly around fortifications inside the system since they're placed on the central body.