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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!
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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!
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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.

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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Before DLC release, pls first test it and Fox Bugs ;/
Also... Diplomacy changes, and election battles? Or i missed something?
And what about ethics that are more likely to join any kind of union?
You know pacifists, egalitarians, xenophiles? Does they just have to stick to one regular federation?
 
Methone said:
It's usually linked to Pacifism.
Click to expand...
I am unsure about this. Stuff like Inward perfection does not allow for Commerce Pacts, and it is usually very exterme pacifism.

BlackUmbrellas said:
A purely spiritualist research cooperative is basically impossible, since you have to be materialist to found one.
Click to expand...
Spiritualism can be lost. Especially after Ancient Relics, now that everyone can get Psionic Theory. And in a Federation.

Bearjuden said:
Can empires whose ethics do not match a certain federation join that federation if suggested by someone else? Eg, can a materialist propose to make a research cooperative to a non materialist?
Click to expand...
Explicitly yes.

Bearjuden said:
If not that, can a non materialist join one created by two materialists?
Click to expand...
Explicitly yes.

Bearjuden said:
If a materialists proposes a research cooperative and then loses their materialism, do they get kicked out, or is cohesion the only penalty?
Click to expand...
Should only be cohesion. If the new Ethic is different form the other partners (wich is a lot less likely with Federation type Ethics spread).


The DD is very specific that only certain Ethics/Civics/Authorities can suggest those kinds of Federations, but everyone can join or stay inside after it was formed.
 
grekulf said:
If a federation loses XP
and drops a level
they will lose access to their perks
Click to expand...

While I like the sound of the mechanics, please can you use some terms with flavour in the actual game and UI! I realise this is all work-in-progress but the Federation screen reads like a game design document at the moment ...

I can accept Leaders and Units gaining experience, because that makes sense. But the concept of a Federation gaining and loosing experience makes less sense. Why not refer to it as Federation Strength and use Tiers instead of levels to sound less gamey?


(ah who am I kidding, posts like this don't even get noticed)
 
Monturiol said:
You can have 5 Federation types? FEDERATIONS DO NOT WORK, SO WHY WOULD ANYONE CARE.
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I think you are missing the entire point of this topic.

Yes current federations don't work, we all agree on this, even PDX agrees that their current Federation system sucks. So, they are scrapping it and replace it with a new one.
Now, being in a Federation makes sense, it adds more depth, it makes Federations a worthwhile thing.

The only party we may complain about later is that there will be a bunch of opposing federations geared up to go to war on each other.
 
The Founder said:
I am unsure about this. Stuff like Inward perfection does not allow for Commerce Pacts, and it is usually very exterme pacifism.
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Well the pacifist faction is called Prosperity Faction, cares about economic growth & energy credits and Inward Perfection is more the absolute of xenophobic-pacifism.
 
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NFZed said:
I think you are missing the entire point of this topic.

Yes current federations don't work, we all agree on this, even PDX agrees that their current Federation system sucks. So, they are scrapping it and replace it with a new one.
Click to expand...
Yeah but they're not though.

All the changes in the OP are at best cosmetic. Your federation gets a different name and a different (trivial, unimportant) bonus - maybe you get a TEN percent research boost other than FIVE, oooooo, remarkable.

None of the things that make Federations suck are changing. Their votes are still gonna be deadweight around your freedom of action, their fleets are still gonna fail to turn up for the battle, their economies are still gonna be in the toilet, their alliances with you are still not gonna enable you to do new things.

Literally the only thing in the OP that improves on things as they are now is that you can make it so the Fed President gets to unilaterally declare war. But that's not "fixing the problem" of the diplomacy AI having a rock for a brain, that's just cheaply sidestepping the issue. So, y'know, I guess it's better than nothing, but it's such a low-effort, easy-way-out """"solution"""" to Federal stupidity that it actually decreases my belief that there's going to be any real AI improvements in this DLC.
 
Monturiol said:
Yeah but they're not though.

All the changes in the OP are at best cosmetic. Your federation gets a different name and a different (trivial, unimportant) bonus - maybe you get a TEN percent research boost other than FIVE, oooooo, remarkable.

None of the things that make Federations suck are changing. Their votes are still gonna be deadweight around your freedom of action, their fleets are still gonna fail to turn up for the battle, their economies are still gonna be in the toilet, their alliances with you are still not gonna enable you to do new things.

Literally the only thing in the OP that improves on things as they are now is that you can make it so the Fed President gets to unilaterally declare war. But that's not "fixing the problem" of the diplomacy AI having a rock for a brain, that's just cheaply sidestepping the issue. So, y'know, I guess it's better than nothing, but it's such a low-effort, easy-way-out """"solution"""" to Federal stupidity that it actually decreases my belief that there's going to be any real AI improvements in this DLC.
Click to expand...
You should consider reading through the OP again, because there's a LOT of additional changes you're ignoring or glossing over. Even the whole "voting" aspect has signs of working differently.
 
I said TANGIBLY.
BlackUmbrellas said:
Customizable Federation Perks
Click to expand...
Yes I'm sure that +5% resource output from Strength Through Unity will really supercharge one's economy, /s
BlackUmbrellas said:
customizable Federation Laws (including how much a member's vote counts)
Click to expand...
Well, yeah, that's the one I said - being able to make it so everyone else's vote counts zero so you as the Pres can actually DoW at appropriate moments. But (A) that's still a strict downgrade from NOT being in a Federation (in that you have to jump through Federal law hoops for years in order to re-acquire a facility you already had before you joined the Federation), and (B) as I said, that's the laziest solution that could possibly have been taken to the diplo AI's problems, i.e. "Take the decisions out of their hands entirely".
BlackUmbrellas said:
customizable fleet contribution
Click to expand...
Contribution... to the fleet that sits in Space Dock and doesn't react to Crises because the AI is too stupid? THAT fleet contribution?
 
To be fair, it does make Federations more interesting but ultimately it's another attempt to just milk the cash cow by PDS by stapling on a new easily marketable system without fixing any of the serious issues with the game or even making diplomacy as such more interesting beyond Federations themselves.
 
hfel said:
To be fair, it does make Federations more interesting but ultimately it's another attempt to just milk the cash cow by PDS by stapling on a new easily marketable system without fixing any of the serious issues with the game or even making diplomacy as such more interesting beyond Federations themselves.
Click to expand...
What evidence do you have of that? We know next to nothing about the planned changes outside of Federations, but the "envoys" mechanic certainly implies inter-empire diplomacy will be changed.
 
Well besides the envoys, they haven't mentioned anything, but you are right I could be prematurely dismissing that option. Envoys themselves could just be fed-related too though since they seemed like the main source of fed cohesion.
 
hfel said:
Well besides the envoys, they haven't mentioned anything, but you are right I could be prematurely dismissing that option. Envoys themselves could just be fed-related too though since they seemed like the main source of fed cohesion.
Click to expand...
We've had like... ONE Dev Diary discussing the upcoming content. This is early early stages of getting a look at what's coming. Seeing them go "hey, we're reworking Federations and it's going to be part of a big DLC and free content update!" and concluding that Federations are the only part of diplomacy that will be changing is silly. Furthermore, Envoys have something to do with the "Space UN", which is a seperate mechanic from Federations. It makes sense they'll be a key part of diplomacy in general in some way.
 
With Megacorp and 2.2 they went into the whole economic overhaul from the beginning. Didn't hear anything analogous about diplomacy at PDXCon this year. I hope you're right and I'm wrong though.
 
BlackUmbrellas said:
We've had like... ONE Dev Diary discussing the upcoming content. This is early early stages of getting a look at what's coming. Seeing them go "hey, we're reworking Federations and it's going to be part of a big DLC and free content update!" and concluding that Federations are the only part of diplomacy that will be changing is silly. Furthermore, Envoys have something to do with the "Space UN", which is a seperate mechanic from Federations. It makes sense they'll be a key part of diplomacy in general in some way.
Click to expand...

The dev diary doesn't discuss what's bad with Federations and doesn't answer on the gameplay mechanics regarding Federaions:
Currently, it appears to be that devs want to make federations "very good" by them providing borderline OP bonuses like that one from the Trade Union.

Here's a handy list of questions that i hope the devs will answer in one way or another:
Can i be in several unions at the same time like with NATO and EU?
What if i want a EU-type union which is an economic, political, military and research union at the same time?
What about inter-federation Diplomacy?
Is there anything about Federation budgets and federation projects - build ships or maybe a mega-project like a Dyson Sphere?

How can one influence other members to vote the way i like? Is there voting on laws ? (presumably yes from the OP)
What if you are not a leader of Federation, but just a member, what kind of gameplay would that provide beside just following the leader?
How would one play against alliances? Any way to actually start influencing the member's ethics and affiliations to eventually break that alliance or separate a specific country in it?
Any changes to the original trade/ research / military pacts themselves?
What about galactic market? Will it be changed to not be a magic box?

Stellaris always managed to light my imagination and give expectations of awesome sandbox play, but damn if the game doesn't go in the most simplistic way about it.
 
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