• 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 #155 - Origins

Hello everyone!

I have just returned from a belated vacation in Japan, and although I had a great time there it is also fun to be back to work. Today I want to talk about some of the cool things happening with Stellaris this year. As many of you have probably guessed, Stellaris will announce a new expansion at PDXCon this year. This expansion will feature a lot of cool new things, most of which will be revealed at PDXCon. But I do also have something really neat that I want to share with you now!

upload_2019-9-26_13-21-43.png

Good ol’ civics. Gotta love ‘em.

Back in Utopia we introduced a lot of cool new features to improve how you could customize and specialize your empire. Civics were a great addition to the game (in fact I consider them to be one of the best), but they are also awkwardly split between “backgrounds” like Syncretic Evolution and “institutions” like Distinguished Admiralty or Imperial Cult. Civics have added a lot of really cool options to how you can play the game, and that is something I want to expand upon – this is where the Origins come in.

upload_2019-9-26_13-21-24.png

Materialistic, mechanist, mushroom madness?
Origins is a new feature that is very similar to Civics, and will now represent your empire’s background. An empire can only select one Origin, and an Origin cannot be changed. We will be adding a bunch of new Origins (some of them are really cool!) and we will also be changing some Civics into being Origins instead. Examples of Civics that will be converted into Origins are Mechanists, Post-Apocalyptic, Life-Seeded and Syncretic Evolution.

upload_2019-9-26_13-22-7.png

Life-Seeded Origin, now open to hive minds.

Certain types of empires were previously unable to access some of these backgrounds since they have their own set of Civics (Gestalts and Megacorps for example). Because some of those Civics have been turned into Origins, those backgrounds will now be available to more types of empires. This means that it should now be possible to have a hive mind with the Life-Seeded origin or a Megacorp with the Mechanists origin. We know this is something people have been asking for for a long time now, and it’s really great to be able to add Origins to the game.

Like I mentioned earlier, we will also be adding a whole lot of new Origins that will add interesting starting positions for your empire. Right now we have 16 in the current version of the game, and we will probably see a few more until it's finished. I think Origins will be a great addition to the game that will surely help to facilitate a lot more player stories and player fantasies.

We won’t be showing all of these yet, but it will probably be immensely hard for us to not tease a few every now and then ;)

upload_2019-9-26_13-24-19.png

Who isn’t curious about Remnants and Scions?

PDXCon is rapidly approaching and Stellaris fans will have a lot of cool things to look forward to! In two weeks we will be back again with another dev diary, where we’ll talk a bit more about PDXCon.
 
  • 1Love
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Looks Cool ^^

But since we are on the Topic of your Empires Origins.

Could we also Finally get the Option to Decide our Laws in the Race Creation Screen ?
Because every Single Game I have to Start by First Changing my Policies around :)

It would be real Nice if we could Set our Policies before the Game Starts so that our Created Empire always Starts with the Laws we set for them.
 
Theorycrafting here, I suppose due to the new Origins system, certain now-civics could also be split into an origin part and reworked civic part.

For example, this might happen to the classic kill all locked-in civics. A certain unbending component cq. origin of a civilization can be modified by (ethics and thus) civics to shape it into what is contemporary recognized as a fanatical purifier or devouring swarm. In the end this could mean more diversity and creative freedom.

I read somewhere in the earlier posts that it was comfirmed the locked-in Gestalt civics are not converted to origins. This might hint to my theory.
 
Last edited:
Fanatic Purifiers, Rogue Servitors etc. will not be Origins, because we you to be able to use those playstyles and still have be able to have different starts with Origins.

As usual, the Origins system will be free and in the free patch that arrives with the expansion. Certain Origins will be free, while others will be a part of the coming expansion.
So this means that there will be a bunch of new Origins for Machines that you can pick instead? I have to ask, if something that changes which species you start with, how your entire game plays and also changes what relationship your robots had with their creators (you know, affecting their origin) doesn't count as an Origin, what does?
 
Not. A Gaming. Computer.

You can't play a PS4 game on an Xbox, that doesn't mean an XBox isn't a gaming console. A Tesla isn't suitable for NASCAR, that doesn't mean it isn't a nice car.

A computer from early 2019 with the best parts advertised for gaming is not a gaming computer? What? Sure an older game can run worse on newer systems in some cases but we are talking here about 3 years. Stellaris even recently got a 64bit upgrade to run better with newer systems, what are you talking about?
 
Theorycrafting here, I suppose due to the new Origins system, certain now-civics could also be split into an origin part and reworked civic part.

The Origin civics, Life-seeded, Mechanist and that will become origins, there will be not an life-seeded civic and origin, so no split, no more mechanist civic. A empire can now choose for example Mechanist as a origin, Technocracy and a second/"third" civic to start play. Basically that former origin civics are now free and you can choose another civic in their place.

For example, this might happen to the classic kill all locked-in civics. A certain unbending component cq. origin of a civilization can be modified by (ethics and thus) civics to shape it into what is contemporary recognized as a fanatical purifier or devouring swarm. In the end this could mean more diversity and creative freedom.

I read somewhere in the earlier posts that it was comfirmed the locked-in Gestalt civics are not converted to origins. This might hint to my theory.

The "classic kill all locked-in civics" will not be origins, read what @grekulf said about that:

Fanatic Purifiers, Rogue Servitors etc. will not be Origins, because we you to be able to use those playstyles and still have be able to have different starts with Origins.

Sorry for your "Theorycrafting" :)
 
A computer from early 2019 with the best parts advertised for gaming is not a gaming computer? What? Sure an older game can run worse on newer systems in some cases but we are talking here about 3 years. Stellaris even recently got a 64bit upgrade to run better with newer systems, what are you talking about?
A Mac is never, ever a gaming computer. Nor is a laptop. No matter what the guy at the Apple Store said.
 
So tell us the specs? Such as GPU, RAM etc.
Actually I'd rather he not. Could we PLEASE not have another thread of people telling us how roxxor their machines are and how each day takes 1.23 seconds and how it's totally unacceptable? I shouldn't have asked or even acknowledged this entire line of argument because that's how EVERY THREAD IN THIS FORUM IS RIGHT NOW.
 
Is anyone else super interested in that "Diplomatic Corps" civic in the picture? Why must @grekulf be such a tease?

Fanatic Purifiers, Rogue Servitors etc. will not be Origins, because we you to be able to use those playstyles and still have be able to have different starts with Origins.

As usual, the Origins system will be free and in the free patch that arrives with the expansion. Certain Origins will be free, while others will be a part of the coming expansion.

Phew! Terrorforming will live on!

A Mac is never, ever a gaming computer. Nor is a laptop. No matter what the guy at the Apple Store said.

You beat me to it.
 
Out of curiosity, will Fallen Empires and event empires get special Origins?
 
Out of curiosity, will Fallen Empires and event empires get special Origins?
Maybe that's what Remnants is? Holding out hope that we can now make and force-spawn custom Fallen Empires!
 
This looks fantastic, but it's going to murder every Civic that excludes Life Seeded (etc.) from being picked that has ever been made. How will normal, plain old starting Origin Civics be handled?

Also, making the unnecessary, fancy grid means a lot more pain to modify in an Origin Civic. Not all of his can do interface Mods.
 
I was wondering that too. On the one hand, putting Fanatic purifier, Determined exterminator and devouring swarm under a specific origin would make things a little cleaner, it would also mean I couldn't do a Fanatic purifier-post apocalyptic empire which was pretty cool.

Also stops Purifiers from being the lost scions of another Empire, which is the current backstory of mine.
 
Only now do I remember something I've wanted for quite a while: an "Environmental Collapse" origin where the homeworld's climate doesn't match the species' habitability preference. It'd fit well with the Chinorr Combine's backstory, and I myself have a species whose jungle homeworld turned into a big ball of ice a few millenia before the start of the game.

Utterly pointless in terms of gameplay (assuming the species still get 100% habitability on their homeworld no matter what), but pretty cool for RP purposes.
 
Last edited:
Fanatic Purifiers, Rogue Servitors etc. will not be Origins, because we you to be able to use those playstyles and still have be able to have different starts with Origins.

So are Fanatic Purifiers and Rogue Servitors still civics?
And if the answer is yes could they be moved into a separate menu/system so they don't take up a civic slot?

Also will civics get cool images like the origins?
 
Only now do I remember something I've wanted for quite a while: an "Environmental Collapse" origin where the homeworld's climate doesn't match the species' habitability preference. It'd fit well with the Chinorr Combine's backstory, and I myself have a species whose jungle homeworld turned into a big ball of ice a few millenia before the start of the game.

Utterly pointless in terms of gameplay (assuming the species still get 100% hability on their homeworld no matter what), but pretty cool for RP purposes.
The Chinorr were changed to use the Post-Apocalyptic Civic when the Apocalypse update happened, but switched back to having a dessert world when Megacorp Came out and they were given the titular authority type, sense Megacorps lack a version of the Post-Apocalyptic Civic.

sure the description of the Civic/Origin both say that it was nuclear war, but the fluff of a Civic/Origin can likely be ignored if you want to imagine alternative reasons/causes for the effects they cause, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Chinorr are going to be a Post-Apocalyptic Mega Corporation once this update drops
 
Also, there should be a Machine Cult origin for Spiritualist empires, similar to Mechanist. Praise the Omnissiah!
01011001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00101100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100001 01101001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001111 01101101 01101110 01101001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01100001 01101000 00100000 01101001 01101110 01100100 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100001