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Stellaris Dev Diary #158 - Federation rework

Hello everyone!

It was great to finally reveal what we’re working on at PDXCON, and today we’re back with yet another dev diary where we will dive into some more details on the reworked federations.

The screenshots still feature a bunch of work-in-progress stuff, like every federation perk using a placeholder right now. Numbers and effects aren’t necessarily final either.

Federation Types
Like we mentioned at PDXCON, federation will now come in different Federation Types. Each federation type has a unique passive effect and can unlock federation perks as they level up.​

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Certain federation types have requirements on what type of empire can suggest to form them, but there are no limitations on who can join a federation (except for killer empires & inward perfection). Yes, this also means that Barbaric Despoilers and Criminal Syndicate are no longer excluded.
​
Galactic Union
This will be a more generic type of federation that will fit most groups of empires. This federation makes it easier to cooperate with empires, as diversity of ethics will have a less negative impact on maintaining cohesion. This federation type will be available to everyone in the free patch.​

upload_2019-10-31_15-22-33.png

Fleet bonuses a plenty!
​
Martial Alliance
This federation type is focused around having a very large and powerful federation fleet. Only militarists can suggest to form this federation.​

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Free and automatic research sharing!
​
Research Cooperative
Empires who wish to cooperate in achieving technological mastery should join together in a research cooperative. Only materialists can suggest to form a research cooperative.​

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New trade policy!​


Trade League
If trade value is the focus of your empire, the Trade League is probably a very good federation for you to be a part of. The Trade League gets access to a new Trade Policy which combines the bonuses of all other trade policies. An empire needs to be a Megacorporation or have the Merchant Guilds civic in order to be able to suggest to form a trade league.

upload_2019-10-31_15-23-40.png

Did you know there is an Origin that lets you start as the president of a Hegemony?​

Hegemony
This federation type is built around one strong core member. The president gets most of the bonuses, but the bonuses for the members are also quite powerful. Only authoritarian empires may suggest to form a hegemony.

Federation Perks
Federations will get access to new perks when they level up, and the perks they get access to depend on their type. There are usually 2 perks that gives bonuses to every member and 1 perk that gives bonuses only to the president. However, the Hegemony flips this around by giving the president 2 perks and the members 1 perk (which does not benefit the president in this case!).

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Hegemony member perk.​


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President gets an additional Envoy.​

Each time a federation levels up, they will get access to 3 new perks.

Level Up & Cohesion
In order to level gain XP, a federation needs to have positive Cohesion. The amount of XP a federation gains (or loses!) per month is directly tied to its Cohesion, which is a value that ranged from -100 to +100.

upload_2019-10-31_15-37-35.png

There are a number of things that will reduce Cohesion every month, such as every member, diverse ethics and opposing ethics. Federation members can counteract this by assigning Envoys to the federation, which will increase monthly Cohesion.

When Cohesion is at +100, the federation will gain +10 XP every month. If a federation loses XP and drops a level, they will lose access to their perks after a few months.

Federation Laws
It is possible for federations to customize some aspects of its rules. In some cases, federation types also have access to different laws at different points. A Research Cooperative can never have the highest level of fleet contribution, and they also require higher centralization to increase their Fleet Contribution.

Each federation type will start with a certain set of default laws.

upload_2019-10-31_15-24-36.png

There are a number of laws which define certain rules for the federation.​

Centralization
Many federation laws require federation centralization to be high enough. To increase centralization, a federation needs higher level. In fact, centralization is the only law locked behind federation levels right now.

Increasing centralization isn’t always easy though, as doing so will have a large negative impact on Cohesion. That means more Envoys will need to be assigned to the federation to maintain its Cohesion.

The primary reason to increase centralization is to unlock new laws.

upload_2019-10-31_15-37-52.png

The Galactic Union federation type requires Medium centralization to have a 20% Fleet Contribution.​

Fleet Contribution
Most federations will not start with the ability to build a federation fleet, as their fleet contribution will start on “None”. The Martial Alliance and the Hegemony do start with a “Low” fleet contribution, however. The Martial Alliance is also able to change its fleet contribution law to “High” as early as Medium centralization.

upload_2019-10-31_15-38-9.png

Most of the other laws not visible earlier.​

Succession types
As you could see in previous screenshots there are a bunch of different laws for how federations can decide who becomes the president. Strongest is the empire with the greatest economy. Diplomatic Weight is the empire with the largest Diplomatic Weight (we talked about that at PDXCON, but more on that later). Rotation will rotate the president. Random will choose a president from a random member. Challenge succession type allows you to pick a challenge type for your federation.

upload_2019-10-31_15-24-18.png

Perhaps we’ll have enough psi-capable pops next time...​

There are currently two different challenge types:
Psionic Battle lets psionic pops battle it out over which empire should be president.
Arena Combat lets the rulers of competing empires battle it out. Certain traits for the ruler (both species and ruler-specific) will influence how large chance the ruler has at winning. The Chosen will of course be very hard to beat.

----

That’s it for this week, and we hope you survive the information overload! We realized there are so many details we possibly could share, but this should cover the most important parts.

Next week we will be talking about the Galactic Community, Resolutions and more!
 
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Duuk said:
No spiritualist federation type... but psionic battle challenge for federation ruler?

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Click to expand...

Until they add religions into the game (which is on their wishlist), Spiritualist Federations don't make much sense.
 
This looks like a fun update! I'm looking forward to trying out all the new stuff once the update/dlc drops.

What struck me as odd though: I do get the ethics requirement on the military, science and trade oriented types of federation as you would expect some affinity of your empire towards the main goal that those federations embrace. But why the requirement of being authoritarian to establish a Hegemony? Any chances of that being dropped throughout the course of further development? Or is a Hegemony specifically designed to be something different than vassalizing other empires? (Right now it feels like a restriction to make the currently quite lackluster authoritarian ethic pick worthwhile tbh).

And one related question: can you force empires to join your Hegemony through war or diplomatic pressure (instead of having good relations which I guess is what will be required for someone to join your Galactic Union for instance)?
 
Methone said:
So 2.65+4-0.75-0.6 is -100?
Click to expand...

I interpreted that as Monthly Cohesion (Base 0.00) = 4 - 0.75 - 0.60 = +2.65.

We don't know all the factors of Cohesion and Centralization yet, but one theory that might fit that image is that you start at -100 Cohesion when the federation first forms, and it changes over time based on the sum of monthly factors. At the monthly Cohesion gain given, in a little over 3 years the federation will have gotten itself fully stable and organized (ie, Cohesion will have risen into positive territory) and the federation will start gaining XP.

Assuming Cohesion gain remains steady -- no new members, no ethics shifts by members -- in another few years, Cohesion will have risen to its maximum of +100, and the federation will settle into some serious XP-gaining and level-increasing to get to those sweet sweet perks.
 
BTW, what about unions created by the Awakened Fallen Empires? If they are converted to this new mechanic, I assume Xenophiles will use Galactic Union, Xenophobes will use Hegemony, and Materialists Research Cooperative (but immediately with max Centralization, full Presidential rights, and some special laws maybe). What about Spiritualist AE though?
Or will all AE still use the same old mechanics?
 
Idea: Vote weight laws based on fleet size, research output and trade output for their respective empire types only.
 
grekulf said:
Hegemony
This federation type is built around one strong core member. The president gets most of the bonuses, but the bonuses for the members are also quite powerful. Only authoritarian empires may suggest to form a hegemony.
Click to expand...
So I guess you guys have been playing Battletech recently, that Star "Concord" look very familiar, wath with it's "first amongst equals" system.
I love it!
 
I understand that some of these are bound to be answered in the coming weeks, but I also hope that you're considering these questions if you haven't already.

How will the Diplomacy tree be changed? Will "regular" Federations be available from the start, so you can immediately start one, and special ones be unlocked through the tree? Will it unlock new bonuses if you're a member of one? Could the trade aspects be changed to allow Federations to establish Trade routes between each other if the members has that picked (so you can encourage everyone to go through the tree to strengthen them)? Then Trade Leagues just get stronger, which is cool.

And for Martial Alliances, what's their goal? To conquer everyone? To assimilate everyone into the Federation? Could there be a special type for Pacifists and/or Xenophiles where they go around declaring Liberation wars, and taking Empires to join their cause for a righteous Galaxy?
 
I'm really glad that diplomacy and federations get a look at but... Somehow I'm not very optimistic. With how bad the AI is, and it becoming worse with every major update, I can only worry how inept it will be at engaging with this new content you're working on.
 
TobiOrNotTobi said:
This looks like a fun update! I'm looking forward to trying out all the new stuff once the update/dlc drops.

What struck me as odd though: I do get the ethics requirement on the military, science and trade oriented types of federation as you would expect some affinity of your empire towards the main goal that those federations embrace. But why the requirement of being authoritarian to establish a Hegemony? Any chances of that being dropped throughout the course of further development? Or is a Hegemony specifically designed to be something different than vassalizing other empires? (Right now it feels like a restriction to make the currently quite lackluster authoritarian ethic pick worthwhile tbh).

And one related question: can you force empires to join your Hegemony through war or diplomatic pressure (instead of having good relations which I guess is what will be required for someone to join your Galactic Union for instance)?
Click to expand...

I agree. Making the requirement some degree of authorian, militarist or xenophobe would make more sense.
 
I really hope this can be made a little more immersive. The whole "level 1 federation" system bums me out. The ranks are fine, but can the ranks please be called something other than level 1, level 2, etc. Maybe instead have the ranks called "Autonomous", "Integrated", "Unitary" etc?
 
Looks great. I don't want to be wet blanket, but some assurances about fixing various issues like late game crises (and heck, tuning the Khan) would be nice, as well.
 
With all this stuff, would there be updates of other existing content to work with federations?

Like for Ancient Relics, say to be able to find the Charter of the First League to use as a foundation for your federation. It could even boost cohesion as a passive, since your using the wisdom of the ancients.
 
Pale Blue said:
I agree. Making the requirement some degree of authorian, militarist or xenophobe would make more sense.
Click to expand...
I'd have to get my hands on the game mechanics to tell. But if vassalizing still works well and I thought I heard youll be able to pick and choose tribute type and degree it might be better in most cases just to do that. Again, you'd have to compare the two. My problem isn't that its locked behind authoritarian. Maybe theres a very good reason for that in terms of thematically or game design. My problem is the redundancy of the two systems. Whats the difference between say being an overlord with feudal society and a hegemony? Or a hegemony ruler with feudal society? Not just the min/maxing difference but the lore behind it.
 
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