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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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They said this in the last dev diary though. Confirmed they want to fix the issues, but the issues are so big they don’t want to touch them with this patch.
I'm sorry, but many of these issues exist for almost two years now since the overhaul they "inflicted" on us. Others such as "Greater than ourselves" would basically just be minor changes. So, no. At this point it's just stringing people along.
 
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The reanimated armies civic seems rather lackluster, I was expecting purged POPs to produce skeleton armies, or that new sacrifice mechanic.

Necrophage seems like a good origin for Barbaric Despoilers now, maybe a new Marauder personality that has no need for resourves but instead demands POPs as tribute.

An Undead Horde might not have as many racial rebellions as the Successor Khanates I’ve seen too.
 
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I do like the idea of a species that reproduces by assimilating others (will resistance be futile?) but will there be a way to automatize that or will we constantly have to search, capture and convert individual pops?
 
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does this mean that you take over the traits of other races as host? can u have cyborg and psionics as leaders if they are incorporated after being stolen?
 
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"Hey devs, we really want a post mortem of the federations patch and where you think the game is going from here!"
...

I feel trolled :>


The civic sounds thematically interesting, but I'm not sure wether it will feel meaningfully different to playing as assimilators. Sounds like you will still mostly be conquering planets and then waiting for wrong pops to turn into your pops? The game currently isnt really immersive enough for me to imagine the difference by myself. So so far I mostly like the Art (ships and portraits) of the pack.
 
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Why no Xenophile for Necrophage? They should come willingly from all over the galaxy to ascend! This will significantly hamper anyone who wants to be a Pacifist as well, since they will be a notable disadvantage when it comes to pop growth.
 
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Why no Xenophile for Necrophage? They should come willingly from all over the galaxy to ascend! This will significantly hamper anyone who wants to be a Pacifist as well, since they will be a notable disadvantage when it comes to pop growth.
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.
 
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-75% Pop Growth additively, I assume, like any other regular trait modifiers?

So, an orign that only alters the early game, but leaves the lategame (with it's ~100% pop growth and infinitely stacked resources) all the same?

Not surprised.
 
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