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Stellaris Dev Diary #144 - Megastructures, Habitats and Minor Artifacts

Hello everyone!

First of all, I’d like to follow up on last week’s dev diary by sharing some more things we’re trying out with Megastructures (and habitats!).

After all of that, we also have something new to talk about!

Let’s start from the beginning – which of course leads us to the Mega-Engineering technology itself.

As always, numbers may not be final and temporary things may be sighted.

Mega-Engineering
Mega-Engineering is still a rare technology, but will now be more likely to appear as you build more Habitats and Citadels. This means it is way more likely to appear if you are performing actions in the game that would lead you towards the route of building larger and more powerful structures.

Master Builders
The Master Builders ascension perk no longer unlocks mega-engineering or adds size to habitats, but instead increases the number of megastructures you can simultaneously build by +1. What about increased habitat size you ask? Well, keep on reading!

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Habitats & Voidborne
Habitats are no longer locked behind the Voidborne ascension perk but is rather a technology that branches off from the Star Fortress technology. Habitats now have a default of 80% habitability. We’re also experimenting with that some of the habitat’s districts will depend on which planet they are built over. In case you build one above a planet with mining deposits, this could happen:

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Voidborne ascension perk now increases habitat size by +2 and increases Habitat habitability by 20%. This should mean it becomes more of a choice for specialization, rather than feeling it is a non-choice.

As a final note on habitats, it might be worthwhile to reiterate my thoughts that I eventually want to add different levels/sizes to habitats. It is however not something for the immediate future, but a little further down the road.

Ring Worlds
We didn’t quite like how Ring Worlds ended up feeling like a vast farm, so we’re making some changes. Instead of being a size 50 with regular districts, we’re changing it to a size 5 with a unique type of districts – segments. A Ring World, as you know, has 4 planets. Each planet can now build 5 segments, which are very powerful districts with many jobs and a lot of housing.

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Minor Artifacts
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Some of you might recognize the icon for what was supposed to become arcane technology, that partially got into 2.2. It was something that I was personally working on, but that didn’t work out as I had imagined it, and that I didn’t get enough time to finish with other things taking priority.

In the next upcoming DLC, you will be able to come across Minor Artifacts. “Minor Artifacts” is a broad term that includes any smaller and nameless artifact left behind by ancient civilizations. They are never gained passively every month, but will rather have to be found.

What are they used for, I imagine you asking? Well, the basic functionality is that they can be consumed in so-called artifact actions. There are a bunch of different actions that can be performed by consuming Minor Artifacts, with varying effects for each.

Some of these actions will be locked behind a technology, which some may also recognize.

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Arcane Deciphering allows you to consume Minor Artifacts for a random technology-related bonus.

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That’s it for this week! Happy Easter everyone! Next week we’ll be back again :)

P.S. Attaching an Easter present

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I'm getting the feeling that the upcoming DLC will focus on or have features concerning archaeology, alien ruins, exploration, and similar themes. I could be wrong but I'm very excited about the minor artifacts features and resources!
 
Making habitats available through technology makes them less unique. In the late game everyone is going to have habitats which doesn't quite feel right to me. I think they should remain something that must be unlocked through the Voidborne ascension perk.

Habitats do need some buffs. Allowing habits to produce more kinds of resources is just what they need. I think the initial cost should also be a little cheaper, with upgrades that increase their size but cost alloys.
 
If the next DLC is a story pack about precursors it will be great.
Next DLC:
Precursors and Backgrounds.

Not sure of the name or the patch name yet. Civics rework, artifacts. Precursor chains no longer tied to map spawn locations and now randomized, rebalanced so Fen Habbanis isn't the be-all-and-end-all.

Best. Story Pack. Ever.

Edit, after review: Sagan patch, based on Carl Sagan's "Contact". That's my bet.
 
Master Builders
[...]
Habitats & Voidborne
[...]
Ring Worlds
I love the changes you have planned for habitats and ring worlds, and am really looking forward to playing with them. Now Ring Worlds look much more like something I'd want to have!

Any chance to get more info on what districts habitats can possibly have and how to unlock them?
e.g. How exactly do I get access to mining districts? Do I get them when I build a habitat over a molten world? Technically they don't have mining districts, but the idea of 'mining' molten worlds is kind of prevalent in sci-fi.
Are there 'proper' energy districts (as in technicians not clerks)? I'm thinking of habitats over a gas giant here (cloud city).

Also, how (or rather build over which planet type) do habitats lose the science and amenities districts? I'd assume you can do science everywhere. Or is it simply a "the UI only allows 4 districts" decision?
And without amenities district, won't habitats have problems with amenities since they already can't build amenities buildings?
 
Overall these are really good changes.

I'll second the whole, any chance we can see screenshots of all the new districts for habitats & ringworlds?

Habitats: Have you thought of having some sort of cap on these? I dread the idea of firing up a game where I'm planning on taking territory from other empires, only to have it turn into a massive grind once other empires can churn out habitat after habitat (not to mention how that will impact lag). If not, I'll just be thankful that I don't play multiplayer because I see that be a real nightmare; especially, with "all the pops" being the meta. Not sure the best way to implement a cap, where this habitat numbers are kept in line without it feeling awful or people find really obnoxious ways to game the system. If there is a way, could be a good way to add some value to voidborne, since that could also up the number of habitats.

Habitat & Ringworld housing: Habitats baseline is the way to go, still concerned it might be a bit difficult to get them to 80 pops without going fortress, poor mans Ecumenopolis or using other strategies to minimize housing needs, in order to get the needed jobs. With ringworlds, bit concerned the housing district will provide way more housing than is needed for the buildings. Perhaps we could get a habitat & ringworld only housing build could habitat housing.

Habitat district: in regards to inhabited worlds, have you thought of requiring the planet to have at least 2 districts build for minerals & not to have the poor mineral quality affix, in order for an orbiting habitat to get the mineral districts? Assuming you can come up with a setup you like?

Mega-engineering: I'm not thrilled that the proposed setup would further reward expansionist empires. Tall builds really should have something that gives a leg up on megastructures against wide empires.

Voidborne: If I'm reading this right, that means if I build a habitat before I pick voidborne, the habitat will gain two districts once voidborne is selected? Also if someone takes that habitat from me, but doesn't have the perk, the district will drop back to 6? If yes to both, would it be possible to consider giving mastery of nature the later part, where if you boost the planet's district by two, but someone comes in and conquers it, it would be a setup where they couldn't benefit from those two districts. I like the idea of a setup where people have to have the perks in order to get their boons, rather than just swooping in and benefiting off of someone else's perk choices.

Gateways: Any plans to adjust these. Not thrilled with how they can quickly ramp up border friction. Would also love it if there was more options on them. For instance, pick 0 inactive gateways, but have a setup number of destroyed gateways (can't be repaired) spawned, so that the tech can be researched. Would also love to uncouple inactive gateway numbers from L-Gates and have a choice on picking L-Gate number spawns (also need a setup where bad RNG doesn't completely hose people out of an L-Gate in solo play at the very least).

Precursor Systems: The ringworld change makes Cybrex system a solid system compared to the First League, but the other three are lacking. Possible idea might be to add a megastructure to each system. Yuht home system has a ruined science nexus. Irassian home system has a ruined strategic coordination center. Vultaum home system has a ruined mega art structure. Just as possible examples, that's at least the vibe I got from each chain on what megastructure might make a ton of sense for them. Also might be worth considering through in ruined habitat for good measure (IMO make these unique from what regular empires can build, where each one has a unique skin and maybe they have 8 district regardless of whether voidborne is chosen or not).
 
Throw that base Habitat habitability down to 50-60%, and/or boost district/building upkeep costs. Because while early habitats are great and all, space is a harsh place. Habitability matters too little. Also be sure to allow more buildings on Habitats to take the place of traded out districts.
Or possibly buildings that can only be built on certain colonies?

Otherwise, I am stoked. I've recently begun seeing mining/research stations as miniature Habitats, and this post answers that perfectly. Although the impact of more available colonies (and thus pops and jobs) on game performance will have to be investigated, this change gives me another lever for deciding how my space nation's economy will run.

It would be cool if Artifacts have to be recovered with ships, be they Science, Construction, or military. Could be a great addition to the mid-game.
 
Next DLC:
Precursors and Backgrounds.

Not sure of the name or the patch name yet. Civics rework, artifacts. Precursor chains no longer tied to map spawn locations and now randomized, rebalanced so Fen Habbanis isn't the be-all-and-end-all.

Best. Story Pack. Ever.

Edit, after review: Sagan patch, based on Carl Sagan's "Contact". That's my bet.

If the DLC does bundled together a focus on Precursors and separating out the Origins Civics, it would have a nice "history" theme. The title would likely reflect that. An (HG) Wells patch has always been my preferred name to pair with new Origins, but that was mainly because I envisioned them coming in a Time Travel-themed DLC so you could eventually change your Origin later in the game.
 
Precursor Systems: The ringworld change makes Cybrex system a solid system compared to the First League, but the other three are lacking. Possible idea might be to add a megastructure to each system. Yuht home system has a ruined science nexus. Irassian home system has a ruined strategic coordination center. Vultaum home system has a ruined mega art structure. Just as possible examples, that's at least the vibe I got from each chain on what megastructure might make a ton of sense for them. Also might be worth considering through in ruined habitat for good measure (IMO make these unique from what regular empires can build, where each one has a unique skin and maybe they have 8 district regardless of whether voidborne is chosen or not).

I don’t know that I agree that this balances, or that the way to balance the others is to add other ruined mega structures. Fen Habbanis is a huge boon, particularly if you’re a Gestalt that can’t build an archeology. I consider the other precursor systems nice bonuses, but while I like the story of the cyberex I can’t stand the system. What’s the point in trying to jump around and research just to get something you can’t use. And by the time you can repair the thing you could just build your own. It’s even worse when I manage to unlock the system quickly, then I have it sit around for the hundred or so years until the right technology card is drawn, maybe if it started with even one section usable. I’d like to see the precursor idea improved on, maybe made more unique for the others three as well.
 
The Ringworld and Master Builders changes look really fun! I can't wait to see what the Ringworld ends up looking like.

With Minor Artifacts, are they going to be geared toward the early/midgame? Outside of some weirder empire spawns, I imagine most exploration is going to be finished in the late game, so you won't really be finding any more. I'm a bit concerned that they're going to be a resource that you run out of and are too afraid to spend. I know I finish every RPG I ever play with more potions than I can hold...

Regarding Habitats and Voidborne, I think the new direction Habitats are taking looks really cool! However, Voidborne seems...a little dull? For me, part of the fantasy of the perk is to become something akin to Marauders or Enclaves, a civilization living in the void of space. Extra districts is a step there, but it doesn't feel like it's all the way done. What about adding housing to all habitat districts, a la Agrarian Idyll? I'd like something even more radical than that, to be honest.
 
Great changes to megastructures, hope that its moddable so we can add +1 parallel building techs & have less issues overwriting megastructure mods (its a little pain atm) :)

Also can we get "jury rigged" ringworlds? i.e. broken ring segments can be made habitabile without needing Megastructures tech, but then only have lower % habitability and limited districts. Researching Megastructures allows the jury rigged ringworld to be upgraded/cheaply terraformed to its best state.
 
Also yes, Voidborn with +2 districts & 20% habitalbility might be a little weak, considering that Habitats will rarely outnumber your planets, in wich case other perks will give you better bang for buck (Machineworlds for Gestalt for example)
 
EVERYTHING I wanted from Habitats and Ringworlds! I love this!
 
I like the idea of increasing low habitability penalties and dropping the habitability of habitats to 80%.

However I would do even more, also drop the habitability of ecumenopolis to 80% (why would my giant industrial planet bepollution free?) and remove the habitability improvement techs entirety. This would force a player to either terraform or gene mod a species for their planet to avoid under 80% habitability penalties (something rarely bother to do now).

Leave only your homeworld, ringworlds, habitats with voidborne, and gaia planets with 100% habitability. This makes terraforming into a gaia world a valuable perk.

In fact if we think of 80% habitability as the baseline no bonus or penalty then above 80% could offer bonuses. I also like the idea of robots having 80% everywhere except where noted above and also on machine worlds.

Really I just want adaptable traits and gaia worlds to offer a bonus that you cannot easily get from terraforming to your preferred planet type and having four +5% habitability improvement techs. I think removing the habitability techs would help do this.
 
You're adding a new resource?

That...seems a bit pointless given that we already have 3 rare and near-useless resources
I mean, Zro is only used for psychic components-so unless psionic you literally got nothing to do with it, and its extremely rare, I've went through entire galaxies not having any-so even if psionic getting it is often a hassle.
Dark matter is relatively flowing, but has NO use unless you steal tech from fallen empires. not even an edict.
And living matter, really does nothing. just a single edict

There should really be more uses for these three.
Possibly an expansion on how plentiful, and how useful nanaites are too. currently they are rather underwhelming.
 
@grekulf

I will need to know more about chance for Mega-Engineering tech to show up before comment on anything specific. Having said that, I would also recommend against using number of citadel built/owned as they are currently difficult to build in huge number, given limited territory and building slots. I often play a tall empire trying to unlock Mega-structure for more population space from ringworlds to grow tall and would lack the infrastructure to upgrade everything to citadel in a reasonable timeframe.
I would like to put an upper limit to # of citadel raising your chance to get Mega-Engineering if nothing else.


I am not sure if an extra building Mega-structure building slot and 50% speed boost is enough to make me re-consider taking it in the first place. There is a good reason why I don't pick it even if I am specializing into building lot of mega-structures: the total number of ascension perks is pretty bloated at the moment. We started with 20 ascension perks when tradition were first introduced and we have gotten 4 expansions which added ascension perks up to 33 since then.
So the jury is still out.


Hmm I like that you can have different habitats depending on the planet's district count. I would strongly recommend allow us to determine what we will get before building a habitat instead of being a randomized effect that you have no way to check beforehand.

For example, It would feel bad if I try to put a habitat over a mining world with 20 mining district and corresponding bonus to that activities only to get food district which you have no bonus for.
I am kind of torn between being excited and disappointed.


The reduced number of district, instead of building 800 district on a single segment for example to more accurate reflect that they are huge and have more usable lands, and larger job count has been one of my longest standing wish. I just would like to extend the same treatment over to building. After all it doesn't make sense to have a luxury house still providing only 5 housing and 3 amenities for a ringworld. Especially true given that a single tall housing district would vastly out-performance 15 luxury housing. The same is true for any other job oriented builds such as consumer/research/food and anything else you would build on a ringworld. I would also look into making colony building HQ on ringworld segment a bit bigger in the job department as well if not already done.
Still need bit more work but you are getting there.


I am not sure if I like the direction that minor artifact are going in... Ideally? I would ideally like to see less "click button each once in X or YY years" fatigue that is already a sore subject in other PDX games. But I would need to find out more about those artifact and the intention behind them.
Jury is still out on this one as well.


I can tell you right now that the dyson sphere look a little better post-buff and is in a good place. However, I think Stellaris team can do better with matter decompressor as it stand right now. I often end up with huge mineral stockpile in a way that I often find myself sell mineral the most and occasionally one or two of the strategic good if I end up with enough deposits to not care about running out. Perhaps, give us more uses for mineral and maybe considering loosing the location restrictions. I would like a chance to have to go in the opposite direction or even sell food instead of mineral. Perhaps asking for a full market overhaul is a bit pre-mature to ask for but I would like to see more long-term trends like say real life market price on certain commodities. I often find myself completely ignoring the actual price and buy as needed. Instead of reacting to say high demand for minerals/alloys.