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Stellaris Dev Diary #146 - The Baol and The Zroni

Hello everyone!

As promised last week, we’re back to talk about something old that’s new – which, as many of you correctly guessed, is about new precursors. Adding new precursors has been something we’ve been wanting to do for quite a while now, and we’re very happy that we can now finally provide what’s been asked for.

In the next DLC you will be able to explore the fate of two new precursors, namely the Baol and the Zroni. To not spoil too much, I’ll only give a basic description of their respective backgrounds and lore.

The Baol
The Baol Organism was once a sprawling interstellar Hive Mind comprised of trillions of psychically-linked plantoids. With their ability to slowly terraform a planet's ecosystem and atmospheric gases via centuries of sustained photosynthetic processes, the Baol civilization produced a plethora of rich flora and fauna on otherwise unremarkable worlds. The Baol Organism curated lush planetary gardens and arboretums across many systems, forming mutualistic symbiotic relationships with local alien wildlife.

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The Zroni
The Zroni were possibly the most powerful psionics to have ever existed, or at least they were the first to discover the dimension which has come to be known as The Shroud. Once the Zroni population reached a certain critical mass it seems that their collective unconscious minds began to make contact with the proto-shroud in dreams, leading to mass lucid dreaming. Soon the phenomenon was studied and the Zroni discovered how to psionically project themselves into the Shroud, where they found that they could manipulate the very fabric of reality with their psionic powers. It wasn't long before the Zroni discovered they could physically enter the Shroud and live like Gods, transforming the dimension to suit their whims.

Precursor changes
One of the more impactful changes we’ve made is that we have now made the precursor spawns randomized so that they will no longer spawn in a specific part of the galaxy.

We have also added some more features and rewards to the old precursors. For example, after having found the Irassian home system, you can now spend minor artifacts to unravel some of the secrets of the Irassians. The new artifact actions aren’t the only new things though, and there’s some more cool things that you will be able to find.

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Additional precursor plans
Some of you have been asking about archaeology and adapting some of the old precursor content to use the new system. In regards to that question I will say that it is something that I always planned to do, but due to other things taking priority we can’t promise that it will happen immediately. If those changes don’t make it into the next update, it's very likely they will appear in the next big update after that. Changing that content would of course still be a part of the base game.

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That is all we had to share for this week’s dev diary. Next week we’ll be back again, which also happens to be the 3 year anniversary for Stellaris :)
 
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Honestly, I'd like to see 2 story packs in a row to let the tech-debt catch up a bit. Let's let the grekulf catch up as the new game lead, get the project under control, sort out the mess that 2.2 left behind, fix some of the lingering disasters (lookin' at you here, sectors and economy) and let the development team really, really get the underlying mechanics fully functional while fleshing out many of the background details into full-fledged story and game depth anyway.

Two story packs in a row would give the game some breathing room. Precursors-ethics-backgrounds as 2.3 followed up with a 2.4 that reworks traditions/ascension perks would not hurt my feelings at ALL.

Then 2.5 can be diplomacy

2.6 is factions/revolts/civil-wars

2.7 fixes the abysmal world-classification and makes it a better grid (cold/warm/hot arid/humid/wet whatever) adding another set of world types and hability

Etc
FISH SPECIES PACK OR RIOT
 
I'm soooo jealous of the Baol! I wanna be that type of hive mind too :(

And could the Zroni indicate a few tweaks to Psionics?

Good stuff!
 
This looks pretty cool. Will any of this be non-deterministic? One thing that's irksome about the current precursors is the fixed reward (and in particular that one is *vastly* superior to the others).
 
Absolutely loving the looks of this, though I got one question...

With the location(s) of the Precursor worlds randomized somewhat, will that make securing their home system any harder? As it is the home system is a pretty big dice roll as to if it spawns nearby or in a horribly bad location. There's been more than one time it's spawned inside another nation's territory or behind the borders of a nation that's closed theirs to mine. Sometimes it'll spawn between borders or inside my own, but it USUALLY spawns at least somewhere nearby - relatively speaking.

Will any of that change? Would there be anything that might actually just keep the AI from rushing over to grab it first?
 
Absolutely loving the looks of this, though I got one question...

With the location(s) of the Precursor worlds randomized somewhat, will that make securing their home system any harder? As it is the home system is a pretty big dice roll as to if it spawns nearby or in a horribly bad location. There's been more than one time it's spawned inside another nation's territory or behind the borders of a nation that's closed theirs to mine. Sometimes it'll spawn between borders or inside my own, but it USUALLY spawns at least somewhere nearby - relatively speaking.

Will any of that change? Would there be anything that might actually just keep the AI from rushing over to grab it first?
It's more fun when it spawns behind the marauders, a Fallen Empire, or a Leviathan and you're just like, "Guess I won't be finishing that chain this game."
 
No, it's exactly like it works now. Right now though, the precursor events are "fixed". Depending on where you start in the galaxy determines which precursors you get. You literally ALWAYS get the same chain depending on where you spawn. From now on it won't be set in stone, so every galaxy you won't know until you get that first event, which will be cool.

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Just a small correction: it doesn't depend on where you spawn, but on where you got the anomaly. So, if you spawned in Yuht territory, you can send all your ships to First League territory and only then begin to survey.
 
It's more fun when it spawns behind the marauders, a Fallen Empire, or a Leviathan and you're just like, "Guess I won't be finishing that chain this game."
I already have this problem. Multiple times have this chain, but suddenly some other empires appiers extending their boarders and suddenly I can't find that last digsite, or mining station or whatever...
 
I already have this problem. Multiple times have this chain, but suddenly some other empires appiers extending their boarders and suddenly I can't find that last digsite, or mining station or whatever...
You know there are events where empires that like you/tolerate you can give you extra artifacts? Or a planet within your border spontaneously generates one?
 
You know there are events where empires that like you/tolerate you can give you extra artifacts? Or a planet within your border spontaneously generates one?
This is how people meta-game precursors. You see where you spawn in the galaxy, you send a science ship clear across the galaxy without ever surveying a single system (and NEVER EVER researching any first contact civs so you don't get border-locked) and you rush that science ship to the First League area of the map. You THEN survey a system, get the First League chain started. Then you send your science ships out normally and you'll get First League chain in your local area going forward. Easy Peasy First League Squeezy
 
You know there are events where empires that like you/tolerate you can give you extra artifacts? Or a planet within your border spontaneously generates one?
I know that, but I must have really bad luck. Never have that one missing artifact... but also in a lot of gameplays I have them all basically one after another
 
This is how people meta-game precursors. You see where you spawn in the galaxy, you send a science ship clear across the galaxy without ever surveying a single system (and NEVER EVER researching any first contact civs so you don't get border-locked) and you rush that science ship to the First League area of the map. You THEN survey a system, get the First League chain started. Then you send your science ships out normally and you'll get First League chain in your local area going forward. Easy Peasy First League Squeezy
Wow, never new about that First League part. I always rush like crazy around searching for this artifacts, but never thought about that last part...
 
Looking cool, and explains where the heck the name "zro dust" comes from, but... I just realized "zroni" rhymes with "brony", and this terrible revelation has infested my mind, if not my soul like something out of an Alexis Kennedy game. I'm so sorry for telling you all this.
 
Looking cool, and explains where the heck the name "zro dust" comes from, but... I just realized "zroni" rhymes with "brony", and this terrible revelation has infested my mind, if not my soul like something out of an Alexis Kennedy game. I'm so sorry for telling you all this.
And now I can't un-see this.
 
Okay... but whats the plan on fixing the micromanagement of the 2.2 economy? No one is going to buy the new DLC unless this is fixed.
Read the previous DD on sectors.

Seriously. 99.99 repeating% of these 'what about sectors what about diplomacy what about micro' have been answered extensively.
 
There's is a mod that allows the AI to find the precursor home worlds which is really nice if you're an expansive empire. You may not get the Unity but the systems are always a sweet extra prize. Would be really awesome if you could get involved with all precursors in one way or the other. Perhaps if you conquer a precursor system from another empire you can research the ruins?