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Stellaris Dev Diary #187 - Post-mortem

Zaztl’s time had come. The Ritual of Elevation was soon to begin, and as she was inching ever closer to her own final destiny, she wondered “Is this perhaps the start of a new life?”. She couldn’t help but to latch on to hope in her moment of dread, but she also knew the futility of the question.

No Jeferian would ever know the answer to that question.

Shumon ins-Beth was born, the newest individual to join the Pasharti species.


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The result of dark experimentation by the Jeferians - the former owners of the planet Taralon - the Pashartians are the ultimate parasites. Originally a semi-sapient creature dwelling in the depths of Taralon's mountains, the Jeferians uplifted and augmented them to act as a subservient slave race. However, their uplifting was rather too effective, and they unleashed a monster. Horrified at the capabilities of their creation - which included the ability to absorb other sentient species and turn them into Pashartians - the Jeferians tried to shut down the experiment. However, a small group of uplifted Pashartians escaped.

Over the years, they bided their time, managing not only to evade capture, but also gradually increase their numbers and develop a technological base to rival the Jeferians. Eventually, the Jeferians noticed that something was amiss, but by then they were powerless to resist.

Soon the Pashartians had seized control of the planet, unleashing violent pogroms on their erstwhile oppressors - all the while further increasing their numbers. Now poised to take to the stars, the Pashartians stand ready to pursue what they see as their solemn duty - the conversion of all lesser life forms to their likeness.


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Hello everyone!

Two weeks ago we announced the Necroids Species Pack, and today we’ll be giving you more information about the gameplay aspects. But first, I’ll take the opportunity to link the trailer once again, in case you missed it.


For Necroids we wanted to add some new gameplay that would be available to many more different types of empires and species. Unlike Lithoids, these Civics and Origins will not require you to use a Necroid portrait. For Lithoids we felt like it made sense, but in this case we didn’t want to impose any limitations on your imagination and creativity.

Necroids gameplay includes:
  • Necrophage (Origin)
  • Memorialist (Civic)
  • Death Cult (Civic)
  • Reanimated Armies (Civic)

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Necrophage is a new Origin that means that your primary species has a very hard time to procreate by themselves, but is instead dependent on transforming other Pops into themselves.

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Necrophage Trait - live long and consume

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Chamber of Elevation - when regular Uplifting isn’t enough

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Necrophytes - Hey, what does the necro part of my job title stand for anyway?

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In addition, there is also the Reanimated Armies civic that we showed in DD #185. This civic replaces the Military Academy with a Dread Encampment, and can recruit Undead Armies that are unaffected by morale.

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Reanimated Armies - the ultimate in recycling.

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Dread Encampment Building - wouldn’t want to get caught dead here

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Undead Army - it’s not wight how they work them to the bone, but they don’t complain

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Necromancer job - some say it’s a dead end job, but they’ve made a grave mistake
(Note: Above image includes the bonus from Ground Defense Planning)

This civic has a few restrictions - no pacifists, and it conflicts with Citizen Service since it replaces the Military Academy. Some subtle differences exist between Soldiers granted by Military Academies and the Necromancers from Dread Encampments - they’re Specialist tier and provide more defense armies, provide some research benefits, and will summon additional defense armies under Martial Law instead of increasing Stability.

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That is all for this week! Next week we’ll take a look at the art process and all the effort that goes into creating the Necroid portraits!

We’ll be eagerly reading your responses, and remember that...
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Jeff sees all
 
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We finally have a use for these portraits:

View attachment 638767View attachment 638768



You'd honestly wish there was a "host" form for other portraits.

I agree, but, will it be compatible with hive minds ? Because I use the left one as a ravenous swarm, but my lore was that it was some kind of plague corrupting every living beings it can grab with its corrupted tentacles...
 
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This is insane. 2 guaranteed primitive planets = basically 60 Pops at gamestart. Now add the ressource Bonus and only let non-main-species grow. Pair this up with technoslaver and no other empire type in the Galaxy can beat you. Forget ringworld, Habitat start or machines, with this the game is over at 2250. This Looks way too overpowered to me if there is no Mayor disadvantage for non-main-species.
 
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That, would actually be interesting. Pacifist Xenophile Necrophage. Where the old, infirm, and ill migrate to get a second shot at life in a new form.
Exactly. If I was getting old and/or really sick, and I knew there was a place where I know I can be reborn, I would head right over. The motive for many in fiction to seek necromancy.

For Necrophage, might as well restrict Pacifist since you wouldn't be able to invade those guaranteed planets for pops anyways.
 
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So are Plantoids gonna get some mechanics or new civics? Lithoids and necroids species packs got unique gameplay mechanics of some kind whereas Plantoids are 100% cosmetic and yet you are charging the same price for it as the other two. Please go back and give Plantoids some lovin...
 
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Can the necrophage assimilation mechanism be adapted for biological ascension? Currently the assimilation mechanism is clumsy especially in xenophile empires with xeno compatibility as new species show up regularly which you need to manually give proper traits.
 
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At this rate, Jim Sterling is going to have to make a Post-Mortem video for Stellaris.

Jeff sees all

Does he see that the most devoted part of your community, those who frequent the forums, is starting to bail?
 
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i think paradox is slowly realising the mistake of affiliating the terms "Necrophage" and "Parasite" together kek.
Everyone knows how deep the "parasite fantasy" goes, this origin is centered around "Necrophage", otherwise they would have called it "Parasite".
So please if you really care about this topic, i'd suggest keeping the "we could expand on parasite like (insert idea)" to a minimum.
 
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Honestly I'd love this species pack if it wasn't for the game itself not being worth playing.
I'm of the 100% opposite view. The game is worth playing, but this species pack is utterly uninteresting to me. Maybe I'm just not big on the zombie/undead/etc thing.
 
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I'm of the 100% opposite view. The game is worth playing, but this species pack is utterly uninteresting to me. Maybe I'm just not big on the zombie/undead/etc thing.
I'm not really into the undead stuff either, but the pack does have some good creepy portaits, like Jeff some of the other ones shown. Similarly the necrophage origin, works great for a parasite empire.

Actual zombies seem to be focused on one civic at the moment. Even the main portait doesnt necessarily say 'zombie' to me.
 
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*deep sigh*
Well, shilling a pointless DLC instead of unfucking the AI and adding general functionality.
What makes me really angry is that unpaid individuals with only the ability to mess with what amounts to dials on a control panel can and do achieve vastly better outcomes than the people who are supposed to know the actual functionality of the machine.
I've bought all the DLC, but this one, I won't, because it doesn't add anything worth having.
 
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So are Plantoids gonna get some mechanics or new civics? Lithoids and necroids species packs got unique gameplay mechanics of some kind whereas Plantoids are 100% cosmetic and yet you are charging the same price for it as the other two. Please go back and give Plantoids some lovin...
Robots came with an entire proper expac. And never got their own ships, cities, etc.
 
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Personally I'd prefer a sort of parasite type undead army to necromantic armies. The master species animates mostly dead flesh through the injection of parasite like subspecies of their original race. That parasite gets the dead flesh moving and provides a host for the lesser part of the core race to exist in.

No magic, no mysticism, just biological horror. A race with very low growth rates that has developed a less than healthy form of survival for the lower end of it's own species by implanting through various means the seeds of their race in the rotting flesh they have taken from others, but in such a way that those rotting mounds of flesh are both mobile and dangerous to others.
 
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Another week. Another DD not addressing the collapsing state of the game.
 
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