• 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 #130 - New and Changed Technologies in Le Guin

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, on the topic of new technologies that we have added in the update. As said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art and interfaces and non-final numbers.

New Economic Techs
As part of the economic system and planetary management changing, we also had to deal with how the various technologies governing resources and the economy would change. Previously, new economic technologies would usually unlock building upgrades, leading to a spree of upgrade-clicking across your planets when your empire got access to a new level of mining technology or similar. As one of the stated goals of the planetary rework was to remove unnecessary micromanagement, we decided to split resource technologies into two types: Raw Resource Technologies, affecting jobs that produce basic resources such as Minerals, Food and Energy and Advanced Resource Technologies, affecting jobs that produce advanced resources such as Consumer Goods and Alloys.

Typically, Raw Resource Technologies provide an instant and straightforward bonus to production, such as a bonus to mineral output from Miners, while Advanced Resource Technologies offer upgrades to buildings such as Foundries into more efficient versions that provide more of that particular type of resource production job. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule (for example, buildings like Mineral Purification Plants that improve planet-wide mineral yields) but as a general rule it holds true. Also, we are aware that some people consider straight bonus technologies to be boring, but it would both be unfeasible and entirely undesirable for all of the hundreds of technologies that you can research in Stellaris to require active engagement on the part of the player - we'd simply end up with a whole lot more of the same kind of tedious chore that was the old building upgrade system.
2018_10_18_1.png

2018_10_18_3.png

2018_10_18_9.png


We've added several new technologies for Mining and Research stations that increase their efficiency, so space-based resource extraction now increases with time and technology just as planet-based resource extraction does. There's also a number of new technologies related to rare resources such as Exotic Gases to either be extracted from natural deposits, or synthetically created in the event your natural deposits are insufficient for your needs.
2018_10_18_2.png

2018_10_18_4.png


Specialized Planet Technologies
Of course, not all the new technologies are related to resources. One of the advantages of the new planetary management system is that it allows us to create planets that are truly different from each other, and one of the applications of this potential will be technologies that allow you to designate a highly specialized role for a planet. Currently, there are two specialized planet technologies planned for Le Guin, Penal Colonies and Resort Worlds, each of which unlocks a decision that allows you to transform a newly colonized planet into a Penal Colony or a Resort World, respectively. At time of writing, you can only have one of each of these in your empire at a time, though this may change before release.
  • Penal Colonies are planets where the other colonies in your empire can dump their criminal elements. Penal Colonies have vastly increased crime, but get an increase to immigration pull and also reduce crime on all your other planets. You can only make a planet a Penal Colony while it still in the newly colonized stage (ie: before upgrading the capital at least once). The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Penal Colony.
  • Resort Worlds are planets that have been set aside for tourism and leisure. Resort Worlds cannot have any districts built on them, and cannot support resource-producing buildings, but have maxed-out habitability for all pops (representing climate-controlled resorts) and increase amenities on all other colonies in the empire. Resort Worlds have their own special set of capital buildings that provide some housing. You can only make a planet into a Resort World if it has no districts and no buildings (besides the capital) constructed on it. The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Resort World. Depending on what we have time for, it's possible that the 'quality' of the resort world will impact how much amenities it will give other planets (for example, a Gaia World would be an ideal resort).
2018_10_18_5.png

2018_10_18_6.png


Finally, in no specific order, here's an assortment of some (but far from all) of the new and changed technologies you can expect to see in Le Guin:
2018_10_18_7.png

2018_10_18_8.png

2018_10_18_10.png

2018_10_18_11.png


That's all for today! Next week we're going to be doing a dev diary, I just can't tell you what it's going to be about just yet. I'm pretty sure you're going to find reading it to be a net gain though, so stay tuned!

announcement%20teaser.png
 
It might be nice to have an event or two associated with that, in the rare event that someone does this. Like, "Some prisoners have seized a ship, escaped from the penal colony and have landed on the resort world!"

We need a special case for that if the resort world is a habitat orbiting the penal colony, where it's just a single prisoner who's stolen a power armor.
 
@LemurFromTheId and @Felidae
It definitely would be better if that was a resort habitat. Good idea. Or for the opposite, even a penal habitat (or station?) like in Fortress 2 or Lockdown or several other Sci-Fi tropes.

On a separate note and not to add extra posts...
Does this mean there will be prison or tourist facilities for other planets? I don't understand why resort worlds are just like nature reserves... can't we have hyper capitalistic casino planets or something? A quick search on Wikipedia shows that Las Vegas got way more tourists in 2017 than a large (and arguably more important) national park like Yosemite.
 
Last edited:
I'm hoping that this makes it in, as otherwise it would be pretty silly, since it would be best to make a tomb world or some other barely inhabitable world into a resort to take advantage of the maxed out habitability.

"Hey, check out the awesome tan I got on vacation!"

"Those are radiation burns."

"What are you, my mother or something?"
 
So one of the things that we got from having to run around to all of our planets was a delay in the "spread" so to speak of the technologies. Have you considered that for techs that give a bonus to planetary techs having an origin planet (say, the research center that developed the tech?) and the tech would then propagate out from that point across your space, say a jump a month or 1y had passed? A player could accelerate this by using science ships (or maybe in the case of space based tech improvements) construction ships to move the tech expansion along faster? That way more developed/core worlds would have your latest tech, but places out on the fringe wouldn't have them until later on unless the player manually accelerated the spread?
 
Is the internal market going to react with price changes to certain events like a lost planet or an unhappy population? I would guess if a big farming world is lost, prices for food would skyrocket.
 
So one of the things that we got from having to run around to all of our planets was a delay in the "spread" so to speak of the technologies. Have you considered that for techs that give a bonus to planetary techs having an origin planet (say, the research center that developed the tech?) and the tech would then propagate out from that point across your space, say a jump a month or 1y had passed? A player could accelerate this by using science ships (or maybe in the case of space based tech improvements) construction ships to move the tech expansion along faster? That way more developed/core worlds would have your latest tech, but places out on the fringe wouldn't have them until later on unless the player manually accelerated the spread?

I understand what you're trying to suggest, but in this game instant communication and transmission of ideas is possible.

A backwater planet might not be using a more advanced technology (more likely because it doesn't have the people to build or maintain it, or they don't have the resources to build it), but it can definitely get access to the information through communication channels. Want to build a new quantum singularity torque screwdriver? Get the plans from the central interweb... aslong as you have the facilities, resources and people you can build it!
 
I'm looking forward to this update. Stellaris is getting better & better.
 
So one of the things that we got from having to run around to all of our planets was a delay in the "spread" so to speak of the technologies.
You didnt, unless for some reason you didnt pause the game to do the hundreds of clicks.
 
Is there still going to be small modifiers based on planet type like you mentioned awhile ago? 'Colony Planet' 'Capital Planet' 'Mining Planet' etc. Would be a cool way for planets to develop some character in addition to edicts you control that give them traits.
 
[...]
  • Penal Colonies are planets where the other colonies in your empire can dump their criminal elements. Penal Colonies have vastly increased crime, but get an increase to immigration pull and also reduce crime on all your other planets. You can only make a planet a Penal Colony while it still in the newly colonized stage (ie: before upgrading the capital at least once). The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Penal Colony.
  • Resort Worlds are planets that have been set aside for tourism and leisure. Resort Worlds cannot have any districts built on them, and cannot support resource-producing buildings, but have maxed-out habitability for all pops (representing climate-controlled resorts) and increase amenities on all other colonies in the empire. Resort Worlds have their own special set of capital buildings that provide some housing. You can only make a planet into a Resort World if it has no districts and no buildings (besides the capital) constructed on it. The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Resort World. Depending on what we have time for, it's possible that the 'quality' of the resort world will impact how much amenities it will give other planets (for example, a Gaia World would be an ideal resort).
[...]
I am close to fell in love with both, but two questions:
a) why at least size 15, I can easily imagine small, otherwise not colonized moons for my murderers / holidays?!?!
b) I don't really get, whether there will be permanent population (like on regular planets) on Resort World?
 
Last edited:
How about having the special planets be one per sector? With proper balance they would only be used a few times per empire for the best sectors, but the placement would be more of an active choice.
 
Not sure about no districts on your special planets. It would be nice to have some service jobs on your resort worlds and enforcers on your prison planets to maintain their effects.
 
I know it's moddable, but how moddable? Say I want a new "Holy Enclave" planet type that allows urban districts, but not other districts. Will I have to overwrite the vanilla district files to special-case each type and disable it for the new world?

Likewise, what if I want a new Casino building that is allowed on resort worlds but not penal colonies? Do I have to overwrite the planet type definitions to make it work?