Stellaris Dev Diary #174 - Federations is out, now what?

[Riekopo]

I would say take a look at the other space 4X games and see how they do federations and alliances and diplomacy.

 

[The Traitor]

Is this supposed to be fixed? I still have this in my current 2.6.2 game.

Well, it's not happening to me anymore. But now that I think about it, it might not have been Paradox who fixed it but the creator of the light borders mod, which I always use.

 

[James Fire]

I would say take a look at the other space 4X games and see how they do federations and alliances and diplomacy.

Is there any other game that even does something remotely close to a federation?

 

[Calvax]

@grekulf Please please work in some UI improvements to show when a policy change would result in a breach of galactic law, and show the consequences of it in a tool tip. Last night in a game I swapped a policy during the late game and suddenly found myself in breach of galactic law with severe consequences. It's not really possible to keep track of the resolutions unless you frequently scroll through to reach each one and try and remember what rules are currently active and what the sanctions are.

It would be great if there was a little icon next to policy options that showed that changing to them would be in breach of galactic law, maybe a little exclamation mark in a triangle. It would also be good if hovering over it showed you what law you'd be in breach of and the current sanctions. Lastly when you are in breach hovering over the breach warning should list the sanctions and their specific effect on you so that it's easy to see how your empire is being affected.

For other empires that are in breach it would be good if that could be seen on the diplomacy or GC page to with which law they are in breach of. More information would really help the GC feel impactful!

 

[permeakra]

We are especially interested in feedback related to Resolutions and Federation Laws.

Galactic community is an interesting mechanic. Federations... didn't have much time to fiddle with, but seems good. I found federation cohesion mechanic especially nice, we probably could use something like this for internal politics too.

 

[andxtiltone]

A resolution that prevents attacking civilian ships (science, construction, colony, etc...) during war would be nice. It can unlock a policy that sets your fleets to ignore those kind of ships, and not activating the policy could make you in breach of galactic law.

While not a huge game-changer, I feel like it could go a long way in making the galaxy feel a lot more civilized!

 

[Hatchie#47]

As for some of the more frequently mentioned features:

While expanding the options for galactic community resolutions would be great I don't really think making the explicitly "evil" resolutions as mentioned would make much sense. Galactic community clearly should at least appear to promote the peaceful cooperation between members and the more evil empires (Authoritarian, Slavers, etc...) should either try to sabotage the galactic community and make ti harder to pass the laws of just not be a member. That being said, I would like to see some creative ways in which the more evil empires could achieve such things or try help their interests while not appearing straightforward evil. Arguing that a certain species is a pest that should be hunted instead of protected is exactly the type of thing I have in mind.

Someone mentioned more uses for Envoys, especialy for the less cooperative empires. Make it possible to use them to try sabotage relations between 2 different empires. Some sort of spying mechanics? Make it possible to use envoys in Galactic Community in more ways (for example obstructing the voting on certain subjects)?

The other thing that would improve the diplomatic landscape is better dynamics in vassal-overlord relationship. I would get rid of the designated tributary status and instead make it so the overlord uses Influence to pass edict-like effect on each of their vassals. Among these would be the "Empire-tax" and "Mining-quota" providing the effects similar to present tributary status, along with similar effect for food production. Other options should include things like influencing the vassals government form, policies and ethics, some way of levying their military units directly, making them vote in your favor in Galactic Community or enforcing one-way pop transitions (either abducting their pop to become slaves in Overlords empire or sending the Overlords species to live in vassals domain - presumably in positions of power).
Being an overlord should produce enough ifluence to maintain only some of these effects so the overlord would have to choose between draining the vassal for resources, molding the vassals politics or using the vassal as source of cannon fodder expandable units. Also having more vassals should give diminishing returns in terms of influnce so having more vassals would mean less means to control each individual vassal.
Finaly it would make for a good storytelling - an empire that spent some time under other empires overlordships would probably keep some lasting effects even if it later broke free. Perhaps the former overlord used them as a breadbasket so the empire was forced to became agrarian in order to feed the overlord and their own people. Perhaps the empire shifted ethics after generations of indoctrination campaigns. Perhaps the democratic cabinet that ruled once was overthrown for a despotic dictator. Perhaps the species of the former overlord was installed to ruling positions in the vassals empire and now that the overlord is gone, noone is forcing them to keep these aliens in such a prestige positions.

 

[BrokenSky]

While expanding the options for galactic community resolutions would be great I don't really think making the explicitly "evil" resolutions as mentioned would make much sense. Galactic community clearly should at least appear to promote the peaceful cooperation between members and the more evil empires (Authoritarian, Slavers, etc...) should either try to sabotage the galactic community and make ti harder to pass the laws of just not be a member..

There are already resolutions which mandate lineage-based promotions / eugenics programs, aggressive primitive studies, destroying the environments of most planets, attacking people for not being part of the galactic community and one which bans every type of colossus except the pacifier (which is arguably the least humane one : P).

 

[BrokenSky]

My neighbors, my fellow space-farers, the time is now to realize that our species is the only true path. The one that deserves to rule over the galaxy. So with that in mind, please let us eat/kill... I mean establish a trade deal!

Rogue servitors and Driven Assimilators don't kill everyone they conquer. Though admittedly, I don't see why DA have such free reign in diplomacy. Since they do want to take your free will, something Spiritualists would want to destroy you for, and everyone else feel very uneasy about.
It might be good if there were resolutions that restricted diplomacy with machines for certain reasons, maybe there could be a policy for your cyborgs.
Like what kind of Assimilators do you want to be? Where they're connected to you, have vastly lowered CG req. but still have happiness as well as the ability to become leaders, to help ease this.

'There are two kinds of politics - the kind where you care more about ideology than practicality, and the kind where you win' (paraphrasing of the idea of Realpolitik - at least as far as I understand it). Plenty of politicians would be completely willing to do diplomacy with determined exterminators if they didn't see them as a real threat and thought they could get something out of it (or saw them as an unbeatable threat, but figured if they throw people to the crocodile, they'd be eaten last).

IMO diplomacy for exterminators should be based way more on threat than normal diplomacy (with either low or overwhelmingly high threat allowing for more-or-less normal diplomacy with most empires but moderate threat giving significant penalties to diplomacy, dependent on the AI's personality - obviously some personality types wouldn't do diplomacy with exterminators no matter what though). [EDIT: (from a fluff perspective)]

It also seems kinda weird to me that xenophobe non-exterminator empires still get -1000 relations with exterminator empires of the same species.

 

[JayDee]

I know it's already been said multiple times, but the desync issues should get absolute priority. We've not been able to finish a multiplayer game at all, even when we play with very conservative settings.

 

[Delpheus]

Hello everyone!

Federations was released a little bit over a week ago, and we hope it's still giving you much joy.

There’s much to celebrate as the community has broken a bunch of records! We had 64-thousand people playing Stellaris on Saturday, which is the highest amount of concurrent players since its release 4 years ago. We want to thank you for the massive amount of support we’ve received with this expansion! We hope everyone has found this expansion as fun and enjoyable as us.

While you are busy enjoying the game we’ve been planning updates and working on patches. We are currently working on a 2.6.3 that we’re planning on releasing as a beta sometime soon. 2.6.3 should hopefully be the last of the smaller patches, as we will be switching focus to a somewhat larger free update in May.

The May update (TBA) will contain more bug fixes, but also a bunch of new things for you to play with. We are very interested in hearing your feedback and ideas regarding Federations, and if there was anything you would have wished for us to add. We are especially interested in feedback related to Resolutions and Federation Laws. Although I will not promise they will be added, I still wanted to leave some room open in case there were ideas that the community really wanted.

View attachment 559188
Will you protect the Tiyanki or hunt them for profit?
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We will give you some more information about the May update at a later stage, so stay tuned! Until then, keep enjoying the game

Will there be a team starting positions feature added for multiplayer games, so teams can spawn with each other?

 

[Lincoln_K]

could you improve preformance?

 

[Lincoln_K]

Could you add a system so you don't have to take almost 100% of an enemy's empire to vassalize them? It makes wars you have already won last way longer.

 

[Hyomoto]

Here's something I ran into the other day. Had a wormhole, slept on it, Empire on the other side claimed it. Okay, fine. Why is the only way for me to acquire it to go to war? I can offer to *give* systems away, why the heck can't I request one? And honestly, when are threats going to be part of the bargaining chain? What it comes down to is Federations is a welcome breath of fresh air because it finally gives you something to do other than go to war, but it also becomes excruciatingly apparent all the places you still have to go to war. I mean, what if you are pacifist? There's no no way to request a system? Why the hell can't the galactic Senate be used to settle galactic disputes? We have all these tools but they stay in their own little spots, doomed to segregation to the detriment of the game.

It's blue sky dreaming, I'll admit. But future updates need to lean more into the systems we have: there are so many good things in Stellaris that have been social distancing before it was cool, and as I've said before: I'm still hoping on a Brave New World patch where you guys really dig in and tie all these lose systems together. If Federations was the highest concurrent player count since launch, it really ought to send up signal flares the size of mushroom clouds just how much diplomacy is a) wanted, and b) been slept on for FOUR YEARS. Keep this new momentum going!

 

[NilsFabian]

I can offer to *give* systems away, why the heck can't I request one?

This, is it absolutely ridicoulus that the AI is never willing to trade systems. It is fine for MP to exchange systems but I'd like to see it in Single player also

 

[Pyzayt]

This, is it absolutely ridiculous that the AI is never willing to trade systems. It is fine for MP to exchange systems but I'd like to see it in singleplayer also

This. I don't care if they demand something absurd in response (maybe a -750 default to the trade if there is absolutely no habitable worlds in the system and an additional -1000 per colony), but let me buy out the entire galaxy! I miss when you could literally buy out an empire to it becoming defunct in Spore - I want to do that in Stellaris too.

 

[Delta7667]

I'd rather have bug fixes than new features

 

[Legrattlyzed]

The path is to support our moral improvement

 

[Durbinadee]

Few modifications on the habitats could be cool:

Right now, the Habitat district housing bonus isn't modified by any bonus from tradition or technology. It make not really enjoyable to pick several of the tradition tree (Especially Prosperity), and even few tech (anti-gravity engineering I'm looking at you right now).
The only 2 level on the capital building of an habitat is pretty frustrating too, but i do understand the idea to not let the habitat become as big as a whole planet. But might need a tweak on it too.

 

[Pyzayt]

Few modifications on the habitats could be cool:

Right now, the Habitat district housing bonus isn't modified by any bonus from tradition or technology. It make not really enjoyable to pick several of the tradition tree (Especially Prosperity), and even few tech (anti-gravity engineering I'm looking at you right now).
The only 2 level on the capital building of an habitat is pretty frustrating too, but i do understand the idea to not let the habitat become as big as a whole planet. But might need a tweak on it too.

I think Void Dwellers should get a bonus to their habitats in that they're always size 10 on construction, but only if they're built by an empire with the Void Dweller origin.