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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.​

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Bonuses to shroud stuff? Pretty sure the designers could come up with some good stuff.
Bonuses to shroud (or easier time to unlock psionic potential among their minorities) are obvious choice, but something else for early game when no one took psionic ascension (especially that you don't have to be spiritualist to take that path, yet you won't get anything from spiritualist federation before you ascend)?
 
Nice. But from what I'm seeing, psionic ascension essentially guarantees victory for a "challenge" type of succession.
Given how there was an "Opposition" list in the tooltip of a law in one of the screenshots, I would imagine changing the federation laws so that you need psionics to make a bid for leadership will sour relations with non-psionic empires in the federation and might persuade some of them to leave.
 
The more I think of this, the less impressed I am.

It's CK2's imperial system hackneyed into Stellaris, but with level requirements.
Parts of the system don't join together (No Spiritualist Federation, but Psionic Duels for Leader -
Not all Spiritualists are Psi Ascended.

Lacking a larger "religions" mechanic, I don't see many hooks for a "Spiritualist-centric Federation" gameplay-wise.
Spiritualist doesn't mean "religion". It means "spiritualist". The game deals with them as dealing with the metaphysical. They may not be psi-focused, but they have a belief in the Shroud and in the "Other".
 
Spiritualist doesn't mean "religion". It means "spiritualist". The game deals with them as dealing with the metaphysical. They may not be psi-focused, but they have a belief in the Shroud and in the "Other".
The game deals with it incredibly inconsistently. Functionally, all the Spiritualist Civics and Governments are religious in nature. Spiritualists don't "believe in the Shroud", they don't even know it exists until (if) they Psi Ascend.
 
Federation built around the Vatican/the Pope.

Granted, you could just do this with a Hegemony anyway.
Blessed be our Holy Federation, who will lead us through the Shroud and unto a Unified Galaxy, safe from the Unbidden, Ascendant unto Forever. Amen.

Edit: This is why Paradox should be hiring me as a story consultant/marketing consultant.

I am good at both story AND PR. Which they, obviously, are terrible at.
 
Wonderful! That's exactly how I envisioned how federations should work. I really love how customizable they are in game.

There is just two things lacking : change the federation type and integrate all.
 
Research federations should have the option for an intellectual duel between rulers for federation leadership. A scientific debate or game of wits. The loser suffers a humiliating research penalty for X years once it's clear their leader is TOO DUMB TO WIN.

My intelligent, natural physicists hold regular leaderships debates to dunk on and embarrass the other members and keep them in line. :D
Yes please. Stellaris devs, make this happen.
 
There is just two things lacking : change the federation type and integrate all.
1. Reach max centralisation as federation leader
2. Lose the presidency
3. Your successor integrates all members includin your empire
4. Ragequit :D

Seriously,integration should work like current final steps of uniting the HRE in EU4 - those who vote against it, are expelled. Or even better option - integrate only volunteers.
 
Yes please. Stellaris devs, make this happen.
I was actually wondering why research federations didn't have "debate" as the method of leadership challenge.
 
Sounds like excellent roleplay and shenanigans enhancement for a second dev clash. *wink*
 
While this all does seem rather interesting, whether this will be the first Stellaris expansion I don't get does not depend on the actual expansion content, but on the fixes for existing problems with the accompanying patch. No fix for the AI, factions, empire type imbalance and numerous other issues that have accumulated over the past year, and I won't give any of my money no matter how great the Federation stuff looks. Nevermind that without some serious AI tweaking, something as encompassing as this will likely make the game actually WORSE AI-wise...
 
I woul like psionics have more uniq mechanics/bonuses than only bonus to Shroud.

Yep, Psionics are dull and boring :rolleyes:
Psyonic ascension path is one of the more complete and large. You get a building with good benefits, a very good trait for your pops, interactions with the shroud, pacts and boons, and special interactions with the Crisis. It's the other two paths the ones who need more content :)

We already have relic for this.
And your point is? o_O
 
I was actually wondering why research federations didn't have "debate" as the method of leadership challenge.

Yes, and we already have a science score. Maybe that could be either a combat between the best scientists or the overall tech score of the empire.
 
Can you change the type of federation after it's been set up?

In the Federation Origin types, will we be able to edit the other federation members? I dream of making a splintered empire where N empires of the same race fight for the presidency.