Stellaris Dev Diary #139 - 2.2.x post-launch patch

[Kryndude]

Could you guys move the demographics tab in the planet view to the left? People naturally read from left to right so as of now I feel like I have to intentionally move my eyes rightwards to check the smller demographics tab while if it was on the left it would've been easier to notice. And then if we want to check the much longer and wider lists of jobs we can then move on to the right side while moving our mouse cursor to that spot to start clicking and scrolling. Also it'll be more convenient if the section that gets mouse clicks get placed on the right side, and following the same logic the above planet summary tab should stay there because of decision/resettlement buttons.

 

[VoodooDog]

Can we expect a bigger galaxy size anytime soon? (i know there are mods for this, but still)

 

[permeakra]

I think giving primary species a bonus to growth selection for your empire's planet (on which they exist) may be a good solution for some of the issues.

Respectfully, not always.

Slaver empires want to maintain specific ratio of ruling (usually primary)/servitor (usually xeno) races, often keeping slaves in excess. In current system I often have to work specifically for slaves to breed before I fund thrall world (and sometimes i do not want thrall worlds or can't make them for various reasons)

I think, if population control is allowed in slaver empire, the pop growth should favor slaves if there are free worker slots and master species if there are free specialist slots.

 

[Agamidae]

All hail Doyle!
I've hoped to see the words "new UX/UI designer" for a long time. The previews look promising

 

[Playwars]

That dev diary is reassuring to see, but I really hope you'll actually take the time to fix most of the issues before moving on, this update has been the perfect exemple of what happens if you go too fast and neglect QA and bug fixing.

 

[ImbaXenoSnipar]

Any more concrete plans on what you will do with regards to performance and fixing the stuttering problem? There are still plenty of reports of stuttering even in the 2.2.4 beta.

 

[Many A True Nerd]

Great to see the dev diaries back

One thing in particular I've been noticing is criminal heritage seems really weak - the AI can easily clear out the branches, given they get 5 buildings for every 1 branch building, so you're just getting the admin cap penalty for little benefit - and this is especially odd, because the AI is getting some benefits from criminal branch offices - I can be freely giving the AI amenities, jobs and army XP and they seem determined to wipe out the branches anyway. There needs to be some way for criminal heritage to defend itself - maybe by events to bribe the local Governor, the AI not counteracting brand-office produced crime if your Empire has a positive relationship with the branch-office-host, something like that.

Also, I'm not sure if this is specifically a 2.2 thing, but I'm seeing the AI do a LOT of humiliation wars, so borders aren't moving much in AI vs AI wars - I don't know what the AI is using its influence on, but it seems reluctant to either make or pursue claims.

 

[Jazzbanana]

Thanks, glad to read that juicy stuff is coming!
In my opinion pop growth should be parallel among citizen species (rather than exclusively one pop at a time) -- depending on species demographics and available housing/jobs. Yes, heretics xeno lovers would (and should) grow rapidly, so maybe migratory pacts could be more expensive and impactful? Don't know, just my two cents.

Anyway, keep up with the great work!

 

[Maethendias]

machine empires need work, alot (gestalts in general, but i can only speak for machines really)

 

[ViolentBeetle]

Can we have a decision to stop slave population growth? Right now I'd have to pick one species if I have enough slaves on the planet, or institute species-wide birth control even though I might have different species in need of growing.

Slave population control really shouldn't hinder free folks.

 

[calen]

Along with the star on jobs prioritizing, if you let us instantly demote specialists it would hopefully fix the micromanagement problem.

 

[ViolentBeetle]

Alternatively, why are workers classes instantly promoted? Don't they need education and stuff? Open vacancies in specialist strata should pull workers gradually.

Although, aren't specialists on cooldown when they can demote easier?

 

[Metroidkirby]

Robot growth needs some improvement as well. It is far too slow on new colonies

I'm not really with you here. Robot factories can't be effective on a world just settled. On the other hand, Robot growth is far too slow on worlds filled with plants and factories. Especially when an automated chain can create a new worker in a few hours, when organics needs years to become productive.

But I'm tired of moving new robots from a crowded world to a less crowded one. I'm sure the team have something here in mind, right?

 

[Gavros]

Ship Upgrade
I think the experience of upgrading ships could be better, as it feels a bit awkward that cancelling your upgrade at 99% doesn’t actually leave any ships upgraded. I want to address that by making each ship upgrade individually, one at a time, and that this process should make use of multiple shipyards in the same starbase. This should mean that if you cancel a fleet upgrade at 50%, roughly half of the ships will still be upgraded. We’ll also take a look at tweaking the upgrade costs and time.

I love you more then you will ever know!

 

[Gaen]

You can fold out the strata to get a view of the portraits and details, like before

View attachment 444486

If you are changing the pop UI i remember a fan mockup UI that i unfortunately cant find right now. It had instead of each pop square having its own background each row had a continuous background that all pop portraits shared. It helped give the UI a more organic look rather than just that of a spreadsheet.

 

[Muhrks]

For the Pop Growth: I think, the growing pops should "look" at the planet to check, which kind of jobs are available. It doesn't make much sense, if your best mining-pops are growing on a planet, which is dedicated to farming. Also Gestalt-Empires: They should know, which exact drone is needed where. There is no need to construct the wrong machinepop or growing the wrong drone in your spawning pool, if other drone patterns are available.
Long term short: If free jobs are available by the time, the next pop to grow is chosen: Grow a pop, which fits the job.

Ship Upgrade sounds great. I just hope, the fleet designer doesn't make it difficult to do..
Speaking of the fleet designer: It is still not able to handle federation fleets with the correct federation designs.
I also miss a Starbase Designer, to have certain bases as a blueprint, for just adding more of the same, regarding to buildings, modules, tier, defence plattforms, weapons and armor/shield chosing.

Planet View: I was hoping, that the "working districts" will look more like the city districts. That boxes kinda bothers me and I am always counting, how much of each district is there available now. Could you please add the numbers as well to the interface, or make it at least an option for your options-menu? Thanks.

Also, the population view on your planet: Why does the priority not simply work, as everywhere else? On your worlds/starbases/.. you could place many ships/buildings/... in a row. After that, you can prioritize them with the arrows right next to them. Why isn't it working the same for your jobs? Would be much easier to handle, I think.
(Could need a planet-designer as well, where I can create blueprints for specific worlds. Let's say, I have an agri world, I would then need first a few enforcers, after that, my farmers, cause slaves.. again some enforcers, more farmers, then the whole rest in non specific order. Apply blueprint to planet - done.)


Just my 2 cents.

 

[Ariphaos]

Planet View
One of the most important UIs in the game is getting a bit of an overhaul. We’ve been joined recently by our new UX/UI designer, Doyle, and he’s been very busy taking a look at the planet view.

One think I would like to see is for pop growth incentives on planets to be toggles activated straight from the main UI rather than going through the clunky Decision interface.

So Bio pops would have something like:
Abandon planet - Discourage growth (no growth) - Normal Growth - Encouraged Growth

And robot pops would have
Halt & Export - Export (but still build) - Halt - Build

Stacking all of these into decisions is kind of messy, as-is.

 

[Iosue Yu]

As someone who loves thinking about algorithms, I would suggest a few things. The grand motto should be "More choices on the schemes, but let each scheme automate." It means the main aim should be letting players choose how they want to shape the games, but let the game automatically run through those decisions.

1. Sectors can be automatically generated. But a player should be able to choose which planet is one's sector capital, or to simply exclude from all sectors for a directly controlled planet. There can be a small multiplier to Empire Sprawl if things are put in Sectors, and a bigger multiplier if you choose to directly control certain stars or planets.

2. Species growth can be achieved by a "Shadow Population" scheme. Instead of showing what is actually growing and use those as real data, the game can keep track of a shadow population of "x number of Pops, xx% are Humans, yy% are Alari and zz% are Fareen" and then the actual number of Pops are generated from the shadow numbers and will work the jobs. Growth and migration should be calculated based on the "real" shadow numbers instead of the "represented" Pop numbers.

3. Pops should really not just promote overnight. You guys, as programmers, don't just open up to become Project Architects just because your company has opened some free jobs there. Please let Pops grow into new Jobs instead of just picking them off from the Worker Stratum and then fill them up.

4. Enforcers should really not be Specialists. Seriously, Soldiers are Workers but Enforcers are Specialists? I think Soldiers get paid much more than Policemen and Firemen. So they have less upkeep due to being in a lower stratum doesn't make sense.

5. Please also really review how Rogue Servitors are played. Due to they actually have Migrations since their Bio-Trophies can move about, but the Migration Attractions are still accounted by open jobs for the Drones. I really want my Bio-Trophies to be able to move about freely. But the migration attractions are really messed up. Besides, if Migration Control is turned off, any new colony will be founded by 1 Drone and 1 Bio-Trophy, but without an Organic Sanctuary to hold him, and will make the planet 20% Stability. Also, Rogue Servitor should be able to sign Migration Treaties with other countries. Also, planet Stability is doubly punished by both low maintenance and unhappy Bio-Trophies. That's a bit too punishing to be honest. Not to mention, AI players don't know they need to build an extra Sanctuary and will always get crippled by having a Capital running as low as 25% Stability.

 

[Achiles]

Yes, I want these habitability-trait bugs fixed. Post-Apocalyptic should not change your original habitability trait, but rather supplement it.

It just seems like having the Tomb World Habitability AND Survivor traits exist is redundant. Why not eliminate Tomb World Habitability all together and have the Survivor trait give 60% habitability on tomb worlds? After races aren't supposed to have evolved on a tomb world, are they? They are supposed to have evolved on one of the nine regular environments over millions of years and then adapted to post-apocalyptic conditions over a much shorter period of time.

 

[Nyvis]

We’ve heard your concerns about how pop growth currently functions, and how it in some cases can create situations that feel wrong. We will be adjusting how pops are chosen for growth, and try to avoid having pops move to, or being chosen for growth, on planets where they have a very low habitability. I feel like moving pops to those planets should be based more on player choice.

Glad to hear that, pops popping up on low habitability in my utopian living standards empire really soured migration for me.

The Pops tab is also being cleaned up a little, and you’ll now be able to prioritize one job per strata, which should make it easier to make your workers prioritize farming without having to juggle the priorities of other jobs in the same strata. The ability to “star” a job was actually the original design, but it was changed into an on/off prioritization.

In think an improved solution would be to be able to order all the jobs of a strata per priority, rather than just a top one. Maybe with priority templates you can save and apply to reduce tedium. Closing jobs is still useful when you want half of them high priority and half low like for hive mind maintenance, but priority is generally what you're trying to convey.