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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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As much as I'm for adding in roleplay possibilities, the slip into fantasy territory here feels a bit weird. Oh, well, c'est la hallowe'en.

But, I would like news re improvements on the ai, crisis, and micromanagement-overload issues that have persisted for so long. This is important to me, as they materially affect my enjoyment of the game.
 
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How will the Necrophage origin work with fanatic purifiers? Since it's not mutually exclusive. Will the other species pops be able to work necrophyte jobs or will the Purifiers just kill them outright?

Just need to know if I can make all species into the perfection that is Purifier Blorgs.
 
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So, Kobali from Star Trek?
 
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devs read the room. the forum is on fire and you post this crap?

the species pack looks lovely and I'd buy it just for those sexy ships but until the game is no longer an irradiated dumpsterfire I will not be buying any future dlcs

my sentiments are exceedingly commonplace on the forums, spend 5 minutes reading your own forum and you might finally get it through your skulls that people are not happy with this nonsense
 
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People keep saying this are parasites :(
They are not, they are vampires. The Strain like vampires. It's not what i was expecting but still interesting. Kinda :/
I would need to play with them to see how they fare. In any case the portraits are already quite good. So i suppose i will have to content with that :(
So now we know more of the DLC, any news on the patch? :D

Can the necrophage assimilation mechanism be adapted for biological ascension?

I think this is the idea. The Chamber of Evolution is just a building that automatizes assimilation. So it could be possible that later we get some of those for other types. Like genetic clinics assimilating biologically, cyberware shops for Synthetic ascension and halls of awakening for Psionics. To me Chamber of Evolution is just a hidden experiment. Consider that assimilation is one of the things people comply ;)

I mean how would a species which require other intelligent species to reproduce ever survive long enough to reach the stars?

Read the backstory, the Pashanti, the parasites are uplifted beings that inherited their technology from their creators/slaves the Jeferians. They don't need them to reproduce, at least not completely :)

Necromancer job - some say it’s a dead end job, but they’ve made a grave mistake

Don't you have shame? :rolleyes:
In my times devs wouldn't mock the highly appreciated necromancer's guild :p
 
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Necroids gameplay includes:
How about Stellaris gameplay, though? When will it include? >.>
Necrophage (Origin)
Hmm... seems ideal for slavers. I guess, aggressive expansion gameplay did not seem powerful enough, huh?
Undead Army - it’s not wight how they work them to the bone, but they don’t complain
Now, if only these were more than a start-game flavour. Bet even those Defence Armies spawned by a Necromancer are the same, old, boring, standard Defence Armies everyone gets, instead of being undead or reanimated or whatever.
 
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Welcome to the Necrolithic era boys. The Origin looks like it allows Lithoids to become Necrophages as well due to the mineral upkeep of pops reduced by 50%.
While this means 0% Population growth for the Necroliths it means a +130 years to Leader Lifespan, +50% Habitability, +5% output for Rulers and Specialists, as well as those Lithoid blockers you can clear for added Lithoid Pops for an early boost to the Necrolith populations.

Just trigger the Horizon signal also and you can have your Thralls also love living on Tomb Worlds. With the Memorialist Civic & the Necrophage Origin you can at least have a +10 to Stability also.
 
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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.
I think about the term Necromancer as one whose definition can be modified. I imagine the Joker army in the current Joker Wars comic series where he uses these sort of nanobots to reanimate bodies, or anything reminiscent of say Universal Soldier where they bring soldiers back from the dead to fight again.
 
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Stellaris has always tended towards the fantasy-like part of sci-fi. so the fantasy flavor, while perhaps notable in degree, is nothing new in kind.
As for complaints about the state of the game not being addressed, it's clear that these diary plans were written well in advance before the explosion of forum discontent.
 
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Stellaris has always tended towards the fantasy-like part of sci-fi. so the fantasy flavor, while perhaps notable in degree, is nothing new in kind.
As for complaints about the state of the game not being addressed, it's clear that these diary plans are written well in advance before the explosion of forum discontent.

Wouldn't call it an explosion. There's been simmering for a long, long time. This is flaring up right now because it's the second holiday season we're approaching where we're getting news about a new expansion for sale rather than fixes on the same issues that have persisted for so long, and the whole thing started because of an expansion released before christmas that was very obviously, drastically underbaked and caused these issues.

So the stellaris forums gets negative around christmas/holiday-time expansion time. That won't stop until the issues are fixed and we have some positive feelings instead of keeping on remembering that the dog died two christmases ago. Simply put, people are cynical. And kinda justifiably so.
 
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I’m a little bit disappointed Necrophages are barred from Fanatic Egalitarian ethics. Would’ve loved to be able to make an actual species of “communist parasites,” as it were lol.
 
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Stellaris has always tended towards the fantasy-like part of sci-fi. so the fantasy flavor, while perhaps notable in degree, is nothing new in kind.
As for complaints about the state of the game not being addressed, it's clear that these diary plans are written well in advance before the explosion of forum discontent.
Yeah, but you gotta admit that there's a certain point where you've gotta say "Oh COME ON!" Like, 'Necromancers'?
 
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Upon further thought, I feel like Necrophage is the unliving embodiment of how some play void dweller, use the Necrophage for main world/big brain work milking the specialist bonus, use the unfortunate souls to populate and spread.

I hope you can have a Lithoid Necrophage. All the lifespan, - 125% growth speed(ish). It may not be truly viable, but as someone on the Discord said "Crystalizing a xeno into a Lithoid sounds metal as F***."
 
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Oh, I'm sad that the new origin is incompatible with Gestalt Consciousness. This is the closest this game has gotten to being able to create the Flood from the Halo universe. Maybe when its features are available for modding...
 
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Is it just me, or does this origin seem ludicrously overpowered? Two primitive civilizations on your guaranteed habitables?! Even if they're Stone Age, that's still 8 pops at a point in the game where every single pop is precious, and that still lets you get past the "newly colonized" malus much faster then usual. And as far as I can tell, there's nothing saying they have to be Stone Age, meaning you could easily get two machine or space age primitive civs for 40+ pops on in 2201, which is absolutely ridiculous. That's even ignoring the fact that you save a lot of resources by invading instead of colonizing (rather than 400 alloys, 400 CGs, and 400 food, you'll need at most 3-400 minerals for armies, which you can then reuse to invade your neighbors with all that specialist output you just saved) and there's no colony development speed (+transports travel much faster then colony ships, although this is virtually irrelevant compared to the rest), meaning the colonies are up much faster then other origins and have way more pops.
Unless I'm missing something, this would appear to make Shattered Ring, Scion, Hegemon, and Void Dwellers look like the epitome of good balance.
 
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