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

[JBorn]

I haven't played a spiritualist empire since Federations, but I was hoping there'd be resolutions they could propose to limit and eventually outlaw AI and robotic workers. The materialists have the inverse option, prohibiting the banning of AI and robots, it seems only fair.

 

[Calvax]

The resolutions against the grey tempest, khan, fallen empires and crises seem a bit weak. I’ve not seen one get to the senate floor whilst the crisis is going on without me using an emergency measure (hilariously they seem to stick around in the lists decade later if not pushed through).

When they do pass they just open borders. Could we possibly have some sort of incentives? Something like gaining influence for fighting or some sort of “galactic defender” empire modifier that gives a permanent 20% bonus to diplo power.

 

[Tyro]

Oh, an idea I keep meaning to bring up... Give us an alarm clock! Let us set alerts for specific dates or events & display a custom note when that happens (and maybe auto-pause as well). Especially of interest is "remind me an election is about to come up" and "decade is about to end, leader roster will reset". So you can save up influence for the election and hire any leaders you want before they go away.

[Edit:] This would be even better if you could add your own notes to specific systems (map pins).

 

[Wyldshot]

Any hope for a fiz with the bug that assigns a random habitat for Biotrophys and Cyborgs for RS and DA types? the only work around at the moment is the relic or ring world starts.

 

[Hype Train]

The ability to recall envoys would be nice. I havent been able to do that as far as I can tell.

I would also like to see the galactic senate try to have more interpersonal kind of conflicts. Maybe if there is a large destructive war, there can be a call to end the war, or maybe a ban on certain types of weapons during the war (like planet killing lasers, for example) for the sake of the civilian pops. Maybe there can be blocs that push for certain ethics in the senate and those blocs can give members more diplo power and stuff like that. Im just spitballing here.

Also, let federations merge together into 1 big nation.

 

[Toltex]

Perhaps a set of laws for the 'Research Cooperative' that pools and then divides the science equally between the members.
None 0%, Low 15%, Medium 30%, High 60%, Maximum 100%.

Each federation type could also have laws that provide some sort of bonus to certain mega-structures? Maybe even some kind of group projects - everyone pitches in and shares the benefits of a Dyson Sphere/Decompressor or each get a segment of a Ringworld etc.

I think group projects in general could be really awesome. All members use their research to work on this project together.

• Improve the habitability/production of all planets in the federation by X.
• Increases to immigration speed.
• Improved happiness/amenities/unity etc

Leader Bonuses dependent on the type of federation?
Shared Data Banks: Research Cooperative scientists are more expensive but 'bleed' tech progress to other members?
Leaders from every race in the federation are available to everyone? "Fighty empire has fantastic admirals, lets make them the admirals for the entire federation."

Laws that have a material costs that increase cohesion - a counter to the increasing drain. Everyone pays 5% of their energy/unity/goods/sprawl etc.

Ascension Perks that massively increase federation bonuses and cohesion? Requires that you have completed the Diplomacy tree and are in a Federation that is level 2-3? Bonuses get even better if more empires take the ascension perk? A reduction to the negative reasons other empires have against joining?

 

[TurtleShroom]

Bug fixing is always the most important goal, but handing out new Policies is a great idea.

The problem is that you are obviously missing the most important resolution out there. WHAT ABOUT THE SPACE AMOEBAS?!

 

[TurtleShroom]

Also, let federations merge together into 1 big nation.

I second an Anschluss option, but ONLY for Hegemony Federations.

 

[Nahadoth]

I'm just really glad that you fixed borders not displaying in the L cluster after you build a starbase. You had to reload the game before.

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

 

[UltimateTobi]

Also @grekulf, @Moah, @MatRopert and @sidestep, please make sure to fix the Take Point ability; as it's crucial for smaller nations to defeat larger ones (For example me having 2x 60K fleets, my buddy having 1-2 40K fleets, but they don't follow when I enable Take Point; especially given that we're facing a 200K fleet of a Fallen Empire).

Please fix this, as this has been broken since 2.2 or 2.3.

AIs have this ability enabled on every fleet, so I guess they expect other allies to follow.

I think coupled with the new military AI overhaul, this could be a very powerful tool for players and AIs.

 

[White_Drake]

Can you make special megastructures and megaships for federation or galactic senate?

It would be cool if the galactic senate had a fleet (controlled by only a selected AI admiral) to punish the troublemakers. Or could issue a sanction for punishment. Something like the crusade.


P.S. I hope you understand me

 

[akeean]

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.

​

Yo, we need a way to see what exact galactic law another empire (or our empire) is breaching.

Right now we only get the exclamation mark that says that someone is breaching a law, but not wich one.

Once the Galactic community passed, revoked and re-passed a bunch of laws, is is no longer "obvious" what a specific empire is breaching.

It would also be nice to see on the proposal tool tip and detail box, not only if we would be violating this law, but also what other empires (can be just the strongest 5, so it gets easier finding some law you can screw over your strongest/most influential frenemies with.​

 

[Spaceception]

One thing that has been mentioned elsewhere, but not here (I believe) is envoys giving 1 unity when you send them to a federation.

For all Empires throughout at least most of the game, you can count all your envoys on one hand. And not all of them are likely going straight to your federation. But let's say you're Fan. Xenophile, have Diplo. Corps, and send them all anyway. You're getting 4 unity.

A more worthwhile benefit would be some percentage-based bonus instead, otherwise, it should be replaced with something else.

And on that final note: Prethoryn Brood Queen: Gives +30 society research. Likely when you're already producing hundreds if not thousands of research in that already. Same with the Rubricator, which gives +20 society.

And the mutual defense resolution which gives up to +50 additional naval cap. I might also change Galactic force projection's +80 naval cap.

These should be percentage-based, but not necessarily the same number as they are.

 

[Milkman Luke]

I would love to have the ability to dictate starting names for the federations for the Hegemon and Common Ground starts, so that when an empire is force spawned but not played by a player it will have a player-created name. I want my villainous Pan-Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere as an enemy.

 

[G S Palmer]

One thing that has been mentioned elsewhere, but not here (I believe) is envoys iving 1 unity when you send them to a federation.

For all Empires throughout at least most of the game, you can count all your envoys on one hand. And not all of them are likely going straight to your federation. But let's say you're Fan. Xenophile, have Diplo. Corps, and send them all anyway. You're getting 4 unity.

A more worthwhile benefit would be some percentage-based bonus instead, otherwise, it should be replaced with something else.

I know, this is so pointless. It almost seems like it was originally influence but they changed it and then didn't change the amount?

 

[Gnostiko]

Galactic Community voting behavior needs to be improved. There seems to be little, if any, logic behind voting decisions and it seems to be completely arbitrary. Empires frequently seem to vote for resolutions that would harm them, and against resolutions that would help them, and it's not uncommon to see 4/5th's of the GC in breach of one resolution or another by late game. Tie voting behavior to ethics (more) and, if possible, include empire relations and especially Federations. Empires should be more inclined to vote for resolutions that match their ethics (e.g. militarists should favor +diplo weight from fleets) and support their more powerful confederates in voting.

On a related note, Federation voting could do with fixing as well. It's bizarre that, for example, Federation members will be in support of jumping from low/no centralization to high, while bypassing medium, or Federation members are randomly against inviting a neighboring friendly power whose membership would increase the Federation's strength.

More GC events. At the moment it just feels like a mostly hollow voting game that gives you bonuses. It would be great if you swing votes by having an envoy risk giving a speech in a debated resolution, or another empire asks you to vote for/against a particular resolution. Or something could happen during a diplomatic soiree, say with your envoys and those of a rival empire's.

 

[Nahadoth]

I know, this is so pointless. It almost seems like it was originally influence but they changed it and then didn't change the amount?

Originally I misread it and thought it was influence. Was very disappointed when I figured out my mistake.

 

[Spaceception]

More GC events. At the moment it just feels like a mostly hollow voting game that gives you bonuses. It would be great if you swing votes by having an envoy risk giving a speech in a debated resolution, or another empire asks you to vote for/against a particular resolution. Or something could happen during a diplomatic soiree, say with your envoys and those of a rival empire's.

Definitely support this, same with federations. I'd also like if these had multiple outcomes with tradeoffs as well. So you could choose situational options when they occured.

 

[Matt516]

Nothing to do with the coronavirus, I'm sure...

I'm sure that accounts for a lot of the bulk behavior, but as someone who's still working (actually have less free time than usual) - I'm playing again because it seems like they've finally (more or less) committed to putting some significant resources into bugfixing and AI improvements. Is nice to see (I haven't played since they changed the pop system w/ Megacorp - I love the new system though I doubt I would've on release before they worked out the kinks).

 

[G S Palmer]

Definitely support this, same with federations. I'd also like if these had multiple outcomes with tradeoffs as well. So you could choose situational options when they occured.

It would also be nice if we got envoy events describing how our envoys are doing in that empire we sent them to. Not only that, but you could flesh envoys out by making their improve opinion effect be chance based so they have a chance of improving, a chance of nothing, and a chance of failing and harming relations. Heck, that could even tie into skill level, and be a step toward making them actual leaders.