Stellaris Dev Diary #155 - Origins

[JosunUrashima]

I feel so torn about this.

On the one hand, this is awesome, neat, great, and exciting news, and has promise for both the regular game and so much more for the modding community. You could create specifically tailored origins for some Empires especially which would be really amazing.

On another hand, this is something I and a few others have said before a while back, and it's one of those things that seems like it could (or should) have been in from the beginning in some form. And just how exactly it works and how and what things might tweak or effect some of them is certainly very curious to me, not to mention I am left wondering if the Civics list is going to wind up shorter and if we're able to pick the same number of starting civics. Not to mention as someone else mentioned, how they'll work out for primitives reaching into the stars and break away realms. (This might actually be a case where one can have a few specific ones for things like, say, Liberated, eg that X Empire liberated the new empire from tyranny or some such)

I also hope that, since in a sense this is a major flavor changer, that it brings some changes to event dialogue or reactions to other races, with perhaps races having similar origins getting a boost to each other. And I also hope this brings in tons more events that become tied to these origins.

Overall, I'm tentatively happy and excited about this, and will be watching for more information. I do like the interface being used for it, especially because it looks like some more neat art which we can always use more of.

 

[Nandemone]

Cool! I would have swear all unchangeable civics would have been "Origins" because they were unchangeable (Fanatic Purifiers, of course, but also Inward Perfection, a lot of people seems to forget... don't know why ). But the fact that the "gameplay changing" civics are treated differently than "starting bonus" civics is really a good thing.

It would finally add a whole layer of possible roleplay to the game. I really think that Paradox nowadays sees Stellaris more as a RP game with strategy in it rather than the other way around (like CK2). And it's very good! I played once an empire and, in my RP, it was a lost colony of a Precursor/Fallen Empire, but only used for waste deposits (the Overvoid Territories of the Dumpsters) and I chose Post-Apocalyptic, not because they were destroyed by some atomic war, but because there was so much junkwards and waste that the world became inhabitable for most of species except the Scavengers. They were also obsessed by relics and minor artifacts (bit like the ratling race from the Rubricator archeological chain).
Now, if there is an origin allowing you to start as a relic world (Remnants?) or a lost colony of a fallen/precursor/dead empire, I would finally be able to play my Space Dumpsters without too much change from the descriptive texts!

All in all, I'm so thrilled for this expansion. Each time a big expansion get out (Utopia, Synthetic dawn, Megacorp), I always say to myself "Oh my god, I didn't knew I needed it, I thought the game was perfect (except for performance issues) and know they manage to make it even better!" I don't want to wait, but I know we'll have too!

Damn Paradox, making too much good games!

not to mention I am left wondering if the Civics list is going to wind up shorter and if we're able to pick the same number of starting civics.

We saw on the pictures than the Life-seeded Hive Mind had two civics, so the numer of starting civics would stay roughly the same.
Then, the list of civics would not really be reduced I think. When you look, there is not so much origin civics for an normal empire:
-Post-Apocalyptic
-Life-Seeded
-Mechanist
-Syncretic Evolution

Other (like FP or Inward Perfection) would still be civic if they treat them like DE, DA and RS. So, now, it's only 4 civics going out of the civic list.
We also see that there is a new civic (Diplomatic Corps), so right now the difference is just three civics left. We can assume than they will add some more, just to adapt to the new mechanics and so one. So I don't think the civic list will be too much reduced (except if the "Institutions" are something knew that are not civics...)

 

[MA1984]

For now it looks like painting interior of a building with leaking roof and crumbling walls. Adding more even good content (witch btw we are getting from modders in bigger amounts for free) won't solve huge problems with AI and performance that are affecting the whole game.

And yes this is not the best place for such suggestions and many people already posted similar thoughts but in my opinion we as community should remind Paradox about it until they start to treat it serious. Because right now we get new DLC but the core of the game is in bad shape.

 

[Attitude Adjuster]

For now it looks like painting interior of a building with leaking roof and crumbling walls. Adding more even good content (witch btw we are getting from modders in bigger amounts for free) won't solve huge problems with AI and performance that are affecting the whole game.

And yes this is not the best place for such suggestions and many people already posted similar thoughts but in my opinion we as community should remind Paradox about it until they start to treat it serious. Because right now we get new DLC but the core of the game is in bad shape.

Nailed it.

No point adding storeys to a building with rotten foundation.

 

[PhD_Fharon]

I don't mean to denegrate anyone, but could we have ONE THREAD without people screaming "I can't play on a huge max civ galaxy to year 2700 without lag!". Please? Pretty please? We know.

Fanboy, fanboy, what you gonna do, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when the lag comes for you.

Sorry, it was too tempting... xD

 

[sortulv]

This appears to be a rebranding of mechanics already in the game, which I wont pay for. Don't tell me I'm going to have to wait another year for Diplomacy and/or Espionage...sigh

How good for you that this is what they give you for free.
The stuff you need to pay for will remain a secret until some kind of (temporal) paradox is resolved around 20th of October.

 

[Zxcpoi]

loyal fans(like myself) are unwilling to play stellaris until the new DLC and update drop

It's exaggeration.
Why do you need to stop?
Last main changes in economic and game management don't come IN DLC, they are just coincide.
I don't own and will not buy Megacorp 'cos don't accept and don't need much of its such functionality and features. But I have accustomed and use new economic system 'cos it's better, more interesting and more logical than previous economy.

 

[Jolly Reaper]

I'm sure everyone would be satisfied if, instead of describing new features, next 20 Dev Diaries would consist of a copy-pasted notice of "we're working on AI and optimization, kthxbye". Personally, I'd be so happy I might even buy the next free patch.

 

[Dmitrius]

It "runs". But the performance drops so hard with the beginning lategame that it just becomes "to unfun" to play further. Lagging menus (paired with the massive micro), stutter, low fps and a totally braindead AI is enough to keep players like me out of the game.

Or say it on an other way: I can play other games instead which my higher end gaming pc can handle so well that it is "fun" to actually interact with the game...

Ok, it's subjective and I get what you mean.

Personally I love the big galaxies and usually play up to 3-4 hundred year games.

I generally bottom out the planet spawn and natural wormholes (though I build a few myself). Also Late game I tend to pause, act, unpause, repeat, as a way around menu lag.

Honestly for me that's playable. The reality is that most people don't have computers able to process the late game with all sliders maxed. It's really just an option for those that either do or are willing to make sacrifices for the scale. Holding the devs responsible for mediocre machines being unable to withstand the extremes of scale available seems unfair.

 

[Slignerd]

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.

Oh, that's a shame. I mean, it's cool that we're able to pick another origin to go with it, but I'd love to see how it would feel to play as purifiers, exterminators, swarms with two regular civics instead of one.

I suppose there's always that lategame tech...

 

[Methone]

Oh, that's a shame. I mean, it's cool that we're able to pick another origin to go with it, but I'd love to see how it would feel to play as purifiers, exterminators, swarms with two regular civics instead of one.

I suppose there's always that lategame tech...

I mean you sort of do? Life Seeded Purifiers with an aristocratic elite is now vehemently possible.

 

[Dmitrius]

I have a recent max spec 15 inch MacBook Pro and on default settings I see a significant drop in performance by about 2270 - eg if I close the galaxy map, point the camera in the middle of nowhere and close the outliner I see a significant (50-100%) improvement in the time taken for a month to go by. By 2350 I'd typically seeing significant stutter and so on.

I could live with this if the game was fun by this point but generally I'd be well into repeatable techs and completed all traditions and so there's very little in the way of new things to do between one playthrough and another - the whole experience is very "samey". On top of this, the effort of managing all your pops and planets becomes very tedious. In short the game becomes boring.

If it was fun to play but slow I could probably live with it. If it was fast to play but boring I could probably at least have some limited fun by playing through various different empires to the end. But with the combination of slow, boring and tedious the whole experience becomes annoying and so I stop playing that particular game.

I'm still finding interesting things to try out for the first 100 or so years but I rarely play beyond that.

Hi there, I did some digging and I'm assuming the laptop you have is the one covered in this review.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw2Gfa5m-jeuY1Zqntj9J3JF&ust=1569667842822370

This isn't a gaming laptop. I'm sure it can play games, but it's not designed for that purpose. Have you tried changing the resolution down a notch or two, may help with your stuttering issue.

 

[Phil76]

Thanks for the info, it's always good when devs give info to their players.

Keep the good work, I wait for the next DLC !

 

[Col. W. T. Philmore]

Today I want to talk about some of the cool things happening with Stellaris this year.

Lemme guess, lemme guess... Pops migration? Sectors improvement? Pleeease....

Stellaris will announce a new expansion

Meh....

 

[AaronArx]

This addition in my opinion is exactly what this game needed, a way to give a history to your civilizations, actually make it so that your empire isn't just something that barely begins when you start the game but something that took millenia to build.

I can positively say that I cannot wait to see this actualized and I have to wonder what the theme of the expansion this will be coupled with will be...but hey, only one way to find out

Just one thing that I have been thinking about a lot...should mechanist be locked behind embracing the materialist civic? I mean I understand that robotics in stellaris is the main thing about materialists, however everything considered I dont' think that a civilization would need to embrace materialism in order to see the benefit of having metallic automatons serving them. Maybe a better condition would be not being spiritualists?

 

[Death Dragon]

I've wanted this forever, so this is great.

I think we could have at least one more of these category things though, besides civics and origins. Split all the rest of the unchangeable civics off into that other category. Fanatical Purifiers, Babaric Despoilers, etc. Maybe call it something like "defining attribute". (Also, maybe put mechanists and syncretic evolution into that category instead. Not sure if that would be OP, but I just like being able to combine postapocalyptic and syncretic evolution to create an empire of roaches ruling over humans.)
At least I think it would make sense to be consistent and have civics only be small buffs that can be changed during the game, while origin and "defining attribute" are the big gameplay changers.

 

[Melendor]

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!

View attachment 514927
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.

View attachment 514926
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.

View attachment 514928
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

View attachment 514929
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.

I loved that idea. My suggestion:

Wormholed

Your home system is near of a massive black hole, in the center of the galaxy. It can only be reached by two wormholes. There isn't hyperlanes.

You start with wormhole tech.

Planets in your home system have +5% in Physics.

 

[Delta_Force]

Ok, it's subjective and I get what you mean.

Personally I love the big galaxies and usually play up to 3-4 hundred year games.

I generally bottom out the planet spawn and natural wormholes (though I build a few myself). Also Late game I tend to pause, act, unpause, repeat, as a way around menu lag.

Honestly for me that's playable. The reality is that most people don't have computers able to process the late game with all sliders maxed. It's really just an option for those that either do or are willing to make sacrifices for the scale. Holding the devs responsible for mediocre machines being unable to withstand the extremes of scale available seems unfair.

So, having a rather new computer from 2019 that was top tier back then is still not enough to play this game from 2016 flawlessly at medium (standard) galaxy settings? Sorry, but that's just unacceptable. My computer is from 2014 and I can still play several newly released games on very good settings without severe problems.

But Stellaris is struggeling extremely bad and it's definitely not ONLY my computers fault because my friend, who recently built a PC with pretty much the best parts you could get a few months back has exactly the same performance issues as I do, same settings, same FPS result. It's not (exclusively) the computers, the game itself is not well optimized if new top tier computers still can't run it while other games run in 4k with max graphical and gameplay settings.
There is really no excuse for how the game runs performance-wise at the moment.

 

[Duuk]

So, having a rather new computer from 2019 that was top tier back then is still not enough to play this game from 2016 flawlessly at medium (standard) galaxy settings? Sorry, but that's just unacceptable.

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.

 

[Mavkiel]

I like the idea of this. I think I suggested something like this even awhile back ago. It just never made sense for things like life seeded to be in the same slot as civics. If I could make a suggestion though, in these updates, they should probably have a throw away line or two to address larger concerns. For example, "On another note, our AI team continues it's work on tweaking the AI to provide more of a challenge". -- No need to go beyond that, but it would address the concerns many of us have that major issues are being ignored.