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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 still think there should be more modifiers, though.

Habitats are cramped, forcing people to live close together with little privacy, which is worth -5% Happiness, but they’re also planned, meaning polluting factors (including noise and vibrations) are very much arranged to be where people aren’t, and that surveillance opportunities are very good, so despite people living close together there’s no increase in crime. Hashtag #smiletothecamera

Arcologies differ. Those too are cramped. Maybe not quite as much as Habitats, but rather than being planned from zero they’re ad hocked on top of existing cityscapes. This means that pollution, including noise and vibrations, sometimes are where people live or hang out. So that’s good for a total of -5% to Happiness. Furthermore, the ad hoc architecture also means there are a lot of nooks and crannies, back alleys and dark places, where Crime can thrive. So I’m thinking +1 or even +1.5 to Crime per planet Size. This means that especially when the POPulation is low, you’ll need more policing than usual, but as the planet grows, the difference lessens.

That’s both realism and balance! And it’s notable that Robots and Droids are unaffected by Happiness, and Slaves are less affected.
 
Overall not bad:

  • Habitats: You can get BASIC habitats without chewing up an AP. Taking Voidborn unlocks some habitat upgrades AND may be the key to unlocking future upgrades??
  • Mega Engineering: The more "big things" you build the more likely it unlocks. I'm OK with that ... it's almost like getting "building XP" :)
  • Master Builders: Not what I'd have done HOWEVER the DEVs clearly have been listening to people wanting more build options so the get points here
  • Artifacts: Sounds interesting ... I'd like to see the implementation though

I'm hoping to see more mega structure variety out of the VANILLA game ... at least see the AI build some MS.
 
You know, overall, I like this. More stuff for everyone and more bigger stuff for those who want it. I can now build both Dyson Sphere and Decompressor at the same time and it makes me happy. Plus 4k energy is really going to be noticable.
 
Minor Artifacts cannot be traded between empires nor on the galactic market.

Currently, 2 of the 5 Precursor Chains are much more desirable than the others. Generally desirable. *Not* subjectively more desirable from the point of view of a particular play style.

Last year, likely in November or October, I posted on Reddit about how the new 2.2 Strategic Resources system, with them being generally useful rather than each only used for 1 or 2 things, and especially the Arcane Tech one, could be used to boost-balance the three shitty Precursor home systems, by giving them many more units of these resources than is given to the 2 good ones. But you basically overlooked that opportunity.

Instead of re-balancing the one desirable Precursor vs the 4 boring and disappointing ones, you took *one* of the boring ones and boosted it to the point where it became *massively* *more* desirable than the already-good one.
 
Yeah we tried that first, but it didn't feel as good/as interesting. We're still experimenting.

I've actually been tooling around with a habitat mod that kind of verges on this area! The solution I found was a scaling bonus to energy, mineral, and science output per point of resource on the primary the habitat is on. That way you can still strip mind that barren hunk of rock which isn't that useful (because lets be honest, strip mining simple carbon and silicas will be useful for a space empire if they so wished), and that valuable 7 mineral rock will give the astro-miners a ~35% output bonus.

There was also unique districts for special resources, so you can have heavy metal/alloy mining bays and special resources collectors, depending upon the amount of each resource on the planet. Its been a lot of fun.
 
I still think there should be more modifiers, though.

Habitats are cramped, forcing people to live close together with little privacy, which is worth -5% Happiness, but they’re also planned, meaning polluting factors (including noise and vibrations) are very much arranged to be where people aren’t, and that surveillance opportunities are very good, so despite people living close together there’s no increase in crime. Hashtag #smiletothecamera

Arcologies differ. Those too are cramped. Maybe not quite as much as Habitats, but rather than being planned from zero they’re ad hocked on top of existing cityscapes. This means that pollution, including noise and vibrations, sometimes are where people live or hang out. So that’s good for a total of -5% to Happiness. Furthermore, the ad hoc architecture also means there are a lot of nooks and crannies, back alleys and dark places, where Crime can thrive. So I’m thinking +1 or even +1.5 to Crime per planet Size. This means that especially when the POPulation is low, you’ll need more policing than usual, but as the planet grows, the difference lessens.

That’s both realism and balance! And it’s notable that Robots and Droids are unaffected by Happiness, and Slaves are less affected.
ah yes we can't forget about realism when talking about two things that don't exist

tenor.gif
 
ah yes we can't forget about realism when talking about two things that don't exist
Even if their suggestion wasn't the best way to go about it, having a foot in the real world is nice to have. Especially in science fiction IMO.

(Also, both of those may exist in some form in the future. O'neil cylinders and Ecumenopolii are real concepts)
 
Note that the other two non-city districts you can build have nonstandard icons (atm industrial arcology and research stations from ecus and habitats, respectively, though I suspect they are placeholders)
That's making Ecumonopoli and Habitats feel less unique, not making Ring Wrorlds - more (unless idea is to remove science habitats entirely, which I doubt).

Habitats, while offer nothing really special, are relatively fast to build (and are not hindered by "rule of 1"). Ecumonopoli start with hefty population base (you need a colonised planet, after all), huge bonus to growth and production. The question is: what can Ring World offer that Habitat/Ecumonopolis can not? does it justify the time and cost of setting it up?
 
by giving them many more units of these resources than is given to the 2 good ones. But you basically overlooked that opportunity.
Boy do I have good news for you - that's exactly what they did.
 
I feel like those megastructures need to start earlier but smaller. And some techs allow for some more steps or increase the output and performance of certain megastructures. Basically a structure like this shouldn't really "end", its like owning a house, it never ends, there is always something to do. Therefore more steps, lesser significance per step and maybe some more choices as to where to go with a certain megastructure.

For example a dyson sphere upgrade could be increase energy output or increase energy storage capacity for the empire or optimize energy consumption systems effectively reducing upkeep in the empire or things like that. This way you can individualize your megastructures.
 
Are all these changes planned for the next major version or can we hope to see changed megastructures in 2.2.X?

Love this! Could you show off all other segment options please? Also, does this 5% bonus stack? I.e. if I build 5 Agri segments in the same section, will all farmers working here get +25% bonus? In this case it's begging for section specialization... :)

Please note that description draft says "across this section" while word "section" was previously used for a quarter of ring world (as in "Habitable Section A"), and the description is talking about segment (i.e. 1/5 of a section) rather than the whole section. I suggest changing it to "across this segment" for consistency.

So, with this we can effectively finish ringworlds 4x times faster. No-brainer :)
 
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Ehhhh, I think you'd be safe in just getting rid of Voidborn and making research increase the size and habitability of habitats. It really doesn't sound powerful enough to be its own Ascension Perk.

Instead take the idea of upgrading Habitats and expand on it. Early habitats are small and uncomfortable at 60 percent habitability with only a few districts. Then you unlock two tech paths; one that increases habitability by 10% and another that allows you to invest more alloys to expand the habitat like you would a space station to get more district slots.
 
Love this!
Are all these changes planned for the next major version or can we hope to see changed megastructures in 2.2.X?

2.3
Ehhhh, I think you'd be safe in just getting rid of Voidborn and making research increase the size and habitability of habitats. It really doesn't sound powerful enough to be its own Ascension Perk.
Snip

Well, they are thinking about making habitats multi-level things (like starbases maybe? I dunno). So I'm guessing this is just a minor thing that will be changed again when they have more concrete ideas.
The fact base habitats are now a tech, points at that direction.
 
there is already talk of the next dlc. every update has been accompanied with a dlc since 1.6 (1.9 if not counting species packs). are free updates not accompanied by a dlc a thing of the past?
 
The question is: what can Ring World offer that Habitat/Ecumonopolis can not? does it justify the time and cost of setting it up?
The farming segment shown offers as much Housing as a Residential Arcology while also providing equivalent amount of Farmer Jobs AND +5% Farmer Job Output. Hard to predict how it will work out in practice, but on paper, this is by far the strongest district one point of Admin Sprawl can buy you.
 
AND +5% Farmer Job Output.
I totally missed that first part, and it's a good thing to remember the other Ringworld Districts probably have that too. +5% Researcher output, Artisan Output, +5% Clerk Trade Value.

Though one thing I'm a bit worried about is Amenities, given you can have like 20 Researcher Slots to fill before your pops taking Clerk worker jobs but uh, I guess just build a holotheater?