Stellaris Dev Diary #165 - Ready for 2020!

[Sir Roderick]

Since you missed it I can't help but repost this great fan art of @Duplo by Long Game Short

View attachment 539280

Someone needs to add this:

Spoiler

Now that we can enslave specialists, can we also get a species living standard that restricts them to just ruler tier, and grants a unemployed job like utopian abundance for just them?

I don’t want any member of my fanatic authoritarian race to ever do lesser work.

Separate rights should be added to subspecies so you can enslave your subspecies tailored to work and can have your main erudites as rulers. Also so you can be xenophobe and not have to use xenos except for livestock.

Now if they could just make Academic Privilege open to Spiritualists AND Materialists (so my Jesuit-themed empire can conquer the galaxy), my world will be complete.

Materialist and Spiritualist should be rolled together into idealist/subjectivist and made to against objectivist/realist

Will Federations finally allow me to lift population/settlement controls off of my free, and fully integrated artificial pops so that the Egalitarian Factions stops giving me shade about a setting I'm literally not able to touch?

On that note: Will factions get an overhaul about what they want/desire so that they stop desire things I'm simply unable to give them? Like: "Make new contacts" is something that shouldn't be giving you a negative after you met everyone alive.

The same with Democratic Mandates: The game should realize when it's impossible to fulfill a particular mandate without senselessly tearing down and rebuilding mining stations, districts, whatever...

And egalitarian xenophobes?

@grekulf what's about neutered pops, do they still not make their contribution (because marked as "purged" not allowed to work till the species went extinct)?!?!?!?

Neutering should give less penalties

 

[Mort Stroodle]

Current federations are basically entirely centered around the federation fleet. If you control it, you're getting all the benefits of the federation, if not you're probably better off leaving. There's some deterrance involved in having powerful federation overlords but once the photon torpedos start flying, even powerful allies are inconsistant protection at best. This leads to the strange situation where tiny nations are often better off NOT joining a federation with massive military, while huge expasionist military powers are encouraged to have a tiny ally that they just ignore all game for a passive 500 naval cap. Any plans to tweak the combat ai so we don't get allies sending single ships into huge fleets for no reason? Otherwise being the little guy in a hegemony will remain strategically questionable.

Now, obviously federations are going to give a LOT more benefits than just the federation fleet for the president, but since the fleet is so important in the current version I'd like more information on how it's going to manifest in the expansion.

Which types of federations actually get a federation fleet? Is it just martial alliances? What about galactic unions, or research/economic feds? Do some federation types get better fed fleets than others? Is the existance/size of a fed fleet a policy choice the fed members decide on? Is there a size hard cap that you won't be able to exceed even if you try to spec your fed into building the fed fleet?

How does control of the federation fleet work? Is it the current all or nothing "whoever's the president has total control"? That's a pretty bum deal for everybody else, is the idea that fed fleets are a strict downside for everybody who isn't the presient, offset by other federation buffs and the opportunity to take control of the fleet later on?

 

[MelkorDarkstar]

If you're interested in that stuff sure we could see if there's a slot for a DD on tech debt and other fun.
As for SQL (or another format) vs text, the biggest reason we go for text is that it's fairly easy for our content designers and modders to edit compared to an actual relational DB.

Def interested.

 

[MelkorDarkstar]

The same with Democratic Mandates: The game should realize when it's impossible to fulfill a particular mandate without senselessly tearing down and rebuilding mining stations, districts, whatever...

This is just real life politics lol

 

[generalis Julius Caesar]

Sadly you are right.

 

[Raptor_x00]

I've been waiting for it since 1.0, *COUGH*immobilePrethoryns*COUGH*


I don't really see how that would help. We have 9 kinds of basic habitable planets already and none of them make empires and species feel different - when was the last time your game experience felt different because you were playing Ocean habitability rather than Tundra habitability? NEVER, that's when. So I don't see why you think adding on more would improve matters.

Now, if they made existing planets more distinctive - maybe by having useful technologies which are only accessible to Empires who start on a specific planet type (your ships can Use Bubblebeam: It's Super Effective as a weapons module if you're an Ocean start?) then maybe we'd be getting somewhere. But just adding more cosmetic-difference-only planet classes I feel is... perhaps not literally a waste of time, but a diversion of resources from Extra Content That Will Make The Game More Enjoyable to Extra Content That Won't Make The Game More Enjoyable.

That is clearly that differences are added to these planets, resources, special deposits, some bonus to the empire, etc ... but what I'm going to do is also that a galaxy with only 9 different types of habitable planets feels somewhat monotonous. The planetary diversity mod in steam, changes the thing a bit and also makes each planet feel different from each other, so more than seeing it as a mod that must be updated and take away the achievements when playing with it, I would like to see it implemented in a much more dynamic way than just aesthetic, that there are also more planetary modifiers that show differences between those 9 types of habitable planets.

 

[Monturiol]

That is clearly that differences are added to these planets, resources, special deposits, some bonus to the empire, etc ... but what I'm going to do is also that a galaxy with only 9 different types of habitable planets feels somewhat monotonous. The planetary diversity mod in steam, changes the thing a bit and also makes each planet feel different from each other, so more than seeing it as a mod that must be updated and take away the achievements when playing with it, I would like to see it implemented in a much more dynamic way than just aesthetic, that there are also more planetary modifiers that show differences between those 9 types of habitable planets.

Fair point. Yes, I also would like to see Gullin-tier planetary modifiers that make all planets distinctive and memorable; this would indeed be better than all planet types being mechanically distinctive but 2 Ocean planets still being nigh-indistinguishable.

 

[Sir Roderick]

Fair point. Yes, I also would like to see Gullin-tier planetary modifiers that make all planets distinctive and memorable; this would indeed be better than all planet types being mechanically distinctive but 2 Ocean planets still being nigh-indistinguishable.

Gullin what now?

 

[UltimateTobi]

Gullin what now?

He probably means Guilli; a modder. Like for Guilli's Planet Modifiers.

 

[Ramidel]

It will be interesting to balance your playstyle with this in mind.
Yes eating Xenos is bad according to the GC but they taste so good, so what do I care about the 10% marketfee increase.
My assumption, the longer the game goes the penalties for breaches get higher and higher so you have to make the decision of either stop eating humans or leaving the GC.
I am looking very much forward to it.

Of course, you can always throw your Diplomatic Weight around and convince the GC to allow delicious, organic, gluten-free xenoburgers.

Because Advent cares.

 

[Sir Roderick]

Of course, you can always throw your Diplomatic Weight around and convince the GC to allow delicious, organic, gluten-free xenoburgers.

Because Advent cares.

Is that an XCOM-2 Reference?

Also Xenoburger Megarcorp: