Stellaris Dev Diary #169 - Origins Q&A

[Heretic Saint]

I think the issue with the Escaped Slaves start is that you would begin with the ability to settle on many different climates at once, which is a huge advantage, and not that it is mechanistically difficult to set up.

Eladrin commented a bit on that here.

You still raise a good point, though there might be various ways to approach this. My alternate workaround proposal, for example, would have this diverse population share Habitability. After all, considering their background, it might make sense for their former masters to have grouped these slaves by environmental compatibility.

Another option could be to make it a mixed blessing by giving this empire's Pops some sort of "Diverse Sociogroup" Trait that acts as a negative Habitability modifier: You might have Pops for several different climates, but since each Pop - by way of how they mixed as a social group - contains a small subset of different Species, you will never have 100%. The negative modifier effectively represents a minority within that specific Pop not being as well-adjusted to the climate and dragging the others' efficiency down.

 

[brn4meplz]

Still holding out hope for a Blorg reference in an Origin. A Bl-Origin if you will.
"This species first interaction with Alien life was exceedingly repulsive and as such has developed more efficient engines to outrun the detestable 'Blorg' as well as the desire to treat future first contact scenarios more suspiciously."

 

[Druplesnubb]

This Dev Diary doesn't show up on the frontpage.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

This Dev Diary doesn't show up on the frontpage.

It's pinned to the top.

Edit: NM, i see your meaning, front page of the website.

 

[Bobwoodword]

I HATE not being able to pick your federation species names and appearance. They are restricting RP potential for no reason other than they probably just didn't want to put in the work to provide. It reeks of lazy. Other than that I liked this Q&A.

Edit: I also dislike MegaCorp not starting as a trade union but at least that is a game play mechanic.

 

[XanderMoraine]

I am looking forward to the DLC!

Regarding Void Borne Origin- It's a shame that the Gestalt-lock would prevent me using Rogue Servitors and creating the closest-yet possible recreation of The Culture!

 

[SeekingEtermity]

Off the top of my head, non-gestalts on a habitat can't build any kind of housing buildings (e.g. Luxury Residence, Communal Housing) as well as Mineral Purification Plants, Energy Grids, and their upgrades. Since the upgrades to Mineral Purification Plants and Energy Grids increase maximum districts if you go synthetic, I understand why those may still not be allowed, but what about housing districts considering they don't have the luxury of planets to store excess pops while building another habitat?

You can build mineral and energy boost buildings on Habitats that are orbiting planets with the right deposit types (or rather, you can build them anywhere you can build the corresponding districts). For example:

building_mineral_purification_plant = {
   base_buildtime = 360
   base_cap_amount = 1
   category = resource

   potential = {
       NOT = { has_modifier = resort_colony }

       NOR = { # Ringworlds don't have mines
           is_planet_class = pc_ringworld_habitable
           is_planet_class = pc_cybrex
       }
       OR = { # Habitats only have mines if they're built on an appropriate deposit
           NOT = { is_planet_class = pc_habitat }
           has_planet_flag = mining_habitat

I really do want to be able to have a hive-minded void dweller. Hives are arguably the best empire type in the game at habitat living, right now, both due to their housing buildings and due to their use of the Adaptability tree. However, in practice it's not usually worth building them anyhow because by the time a hive is really squeezed for space, it has better options. Void Dweller origin would make a great reason for actually using Habitats, and having it off-limits to hives seems really sad.

 

[AlleyTheToaster]

Looks awesome

 

[SeekingEtermity]

Fanatic egalitarians strike me as anarcho-capitalists or anarcho-libertarians, where the rights of the individual persist into death, no matter what. This makes sense to me.

Or, you know, straight-up communists. The only empire type that explicitly requires Fanatic Egalitarian (via the "Shared Burdens" civic).

You're thinking of Fanatic Individualist, which is an ethic that doesn't exist anymore and hasn't for a looooong time.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

I HATE not being able to pick your federation species names and appearance. They are restricting RP potential for no reason other than they probably just didn't want to put in the work to provide. It reeks of lazy. Other than that I liked this Q&A.

Edit: I also dislike MegaCorp not starting as a trade union but at least that is a game play mechanic.

I would dial the anger down a notch, then your limited request for portraits and names and not complete empires sounds reasonable. I would even support making such a case to the devs. We already have customizable races for syncretics, servitors, and assimilators after all.

 

[The Founder]

Remnants / Shattered Ring

Do Remnants / Shattered Ring have any special interactions with Fallen Empires?

Something like "Hopefully you have learned your lesson from last time"?

How deeply integrated with other game files will Origins be? I.e. how easy will it be to create separate Origin mods without causing a file conflict?
Everything Origins-related are in separate files, and fairly easy to find. However, much like with space ships, Origins often involve work in several different files in order to work, not to mention the fact that the type of Origin may very well make it 'bleed' into other types of files. It's not complicated, but it is complex. It's not uncommon for a single Origin to have more than a dozen anchors in different files.

Origins can be made infinitely complex, and thus have infinite potential to conflict or not conflict with other elements of the game. (More seriously, modders should be able to do a lot with no conflicts - depending on what they do of course! Startup effects are the one bit that might be complicated, but I think they can get around conflicts there.)

Do the scriptfiles check for specific origins by identifier, like you do for specific (valid) Civics?
Scripted Triggers that could be expanded in a central file?
Flags that are assigned to each Origin, similar to how you set behaviors for Attitudes and AI Personalities?

For the example the "Post-Apocalyptic Hegemony origin".
Would I need to rewrite any event/script/condition that checks for one part, to also accept the new combined one?
The Hegemony part is pretty much just the start Event. It would be a small But Post-Apocalyptic is smeared all over the place, including factions (Spiritualist and Tombworlds).
Or would we just have to modify a single scripted triggers file, to add this Origin to the "has_origin_x" check?

 

[SeekingEtermity]

Existing ruined Ringworld means you skip the stage where you build a 'lesser' Megastructure in order to be allowed to pick Galactic Wonders (this alone will save about 20 years).

Galactic Wonders requires having a complete wonder. Given that 1/4 of the ring is permanently destroyed (which, uh, doesn't make that much sense given the ability to build the things from scratch, but makes sense if you don't yet have the Ring World tech, and you wouldn't yet) it might not be possible to qualify for Galactic Wonders just off your home ring.

 

[xMer]

Locking Hegemony for xenophobe empires is kinda sad for everyone that wanted to follow warhammer-like xenophobic single specie Hegemony.
What about adding third version of federation start, but this time with single-specie Hegemony. Another good example could be Earth Hegemony with minor member of Alpha Centauri Colony.
As this is diplomatic patch it might be reasonable to have pass over same specie xenophobe empires diplomacy.
ex. migration pact with same species shouldn't make xenophobic faction unhappy.

 

[The Founder]

Fanatic egalitarians strike me as anarcho-capitalists or anarcho-libertarians, where the rights of the individual persist into death, no matter what. This makes sense to me.

But why would people want to stay on the Exploding Planet? Excluding the odd nut-case (1-2 pops at best), the bulk of people should be sane enough to want to get off that planet.

In this case, resettlement could simply be that you subsidize the move people want to make anyway.

Galactic Wonders requires having a complete wonder. Given that 1/4 of the ring is permanently destroyed (which, uh, doesn't make that much sense given the ability to build the things from scratch, but makes sense if you don't yet have the Ring World tech, and you wouldn't yet) it might not be possible to qualify for Galactic Wonders just off your home ring.

The check is currently written as:

possible = {
    custom_tooltip = {
        fail_text = "requires_mega_engineering"
        has_technology = tech_mega_engineering
    }
    custom_tooltip = {
        fail_text = "requires_built_or_repaired_megastructure"
        has_country_flag = has_built_or_repaired_megastructure
    }
}

And currently the flag is set for completing the Scafholding of a Ringworld and each Restored Ringworld Segement. So if you repair one, you got it unlocked.

Are fanatic egalitarian empires that take the Doomsday origin… doomed? (Since they can’t resettle their pops?)
Pretty much.

Is the Migration push big enough to at least get most people out? Maybe even turn growth on the home planet all the way to population decay, once a target is avalible?

You still raise a good point, though there might be various ways to approach this. My alternate workaround proposal, for example, would have this diverse population share Habitability. After all, considering their background, it might make sense for their former masters to have grouped these slaves by environmental compatibility.

Another option could be to make it a mixed blessing by giving this empire's Pops some sort of "Diverse Sociogroup" Trait that acts as a negative Habitability modifier: You might have Pops for several different climates, but since each Pop - by way of how they mixed as a social group - contains a small subset of different Species, you will never have 100%. The negative modifier effectively represents a minority within that specific Pop not being as well-adjusted to the climate and dragging the others' efficiency down.

I thought up a form of Crisis/Ascension path once, where all pops become "one species" that is not a robot. Basically you would assimilate all species into a single "species", that is wearing environmental suits, has universal habitability, all species would match the "founder species" checks, etc.

I HATE not being able to pick your federation species names and appearance. They are restricting RP potential for no reason other than they probably just didn't want to put in the work to provide. It reeks of lazy. Other than that I liked this Q&A.

I would dial the anger down a notch, then your limited request for portraits and names and not complete empires sounds reasonable. I would even support making such a case to the devs. We already have customizable races for syncretics, servitors, and assimilators after all.

Synchretic, Servitors and Assimilators needs only a single additional species.
This would require 2 species to 2 whole extra empires.
Or a way to link other Empires to your Empire in a way that is actually workable. Nevermind questions like you getting all 3 Habitabiltiy categories that way.

Locking Hegemony for xenophobe empires is kinda sad for everyone that wanted to follow warhammer-like xenophobic single specie Hegemony.

Xenophobe does not apply to the same species and subspecies, so it only collides with the "no pre-decided" empires rule.

And that start would need a custom start event anyway to set up the planets/species. If you write a custom Origin for them, it is one of the easier things to mod into the game.

 

[Pointyearedgit]

Or a way to link other Empires to your Empire in a way that is actually workable. Nevermind questions like you getting all 3 Habitabiltiy categories that way.

Such as ... the coding for lost colony?

 

[The Founder]

Such as ... the coding for lost colony?

They are not linked. The game just force-spawns another Empire using the a copy of the species with a advanced start handling.

For the COM they did it with one tag check and a Solar System Initializer. For this, it could also easily spawn the additional colonies.

 

[Medicine Man]

Looking like a very promising DLC so far.

I'll confess I'm a little apprehensive about next week's Dev Diary. Hopefully their Tech Lead drops a Moah-b on us.

 

[Methone]

Do Remnants / Shattered Ring have any special interactions with Fallen Empires?

Something like "Hopefully you have learned your lesson from last time"?

According to an old twitter response, Fallen Empires "Recognize you as a primitive." I guess they didn't think much of you then, and they don't think much of you now, either.

 

[RoverStorm]

You can build mineral and energy boost buildings on Habitats that are orbiting planets with the right deposit types (or rather, you can build them anywhere you can build the corresponding districts). For example:

I really do want to be able to have a hive-minded void dweller. Hives are arguably the best empire type in the game at habitat living, right now, both due to their housing buildings and due to their use of the Adaptability tree. However, in practice it's not usually worth building them anyhow because by the time a hive is really squeezed for space, it has better options. Void Dweller origin would make a great reason for actually using Habitats, and having it off-limits to hives seems really sad.

First point, I had no idea. That's a new addition I somehow missed, despite being a huge fan of habitats. Shows how many multiplayer games last that long. Oh well, they should last longer if the next dev diary (which is on performance) explains that they've fixed the slowdown.

Second point I strongly agree with you. Hive Minds are probably my favorite empire, and definitely the gameplay I've mastered the most in Stellaris. I seriously hope they make void dwellers available to hive minds without needing mods so I can use it in any multiplayer lobby.

 

[OnyxAbussos]

And if not a default, it could be a fantastic event/anomaly chain to have on a barren world. Possibly something like the shielded world chain, but with hopefully a somewhat less murder oriented outcome.

IRIBOT PRECURSORS!!!