Stellaris Dev Diary #187 - Post-mortem

[DrNukeLear]

Im probably a bit unique in my opinions but this seems to be a bit out of character/theme for stellaris.

This is actually the first time I think that the non-art assets won't actually enhance my game. @grekulf any chance of an Art Asset only version, I don't want to spend money on the DLC to cut the non-art content by modding.

 

[XxNovaStarxX]

This is actually the first time I think that the non-art assets won't actually enhance my game. @grekulf any chance of an Art Asset only version, I don't want to spend money on the DLC to cut the non-art content by modding.

Find the art assets in the files and turn them in to your own personal mod. Activate the mod and voila!

 

[VoidStalker123]

Not gonna lie, I would've liked the option to become a Necromorph Swarm.

 

[Zagreb 887]

Not gonna lie, I would've liked the option to become a Necromorph Swarm.

Don't expect Pdx to do anything for Hiveminds, they decided to make them garbage in any aspect.

If you want your necroswarm thing, just use the Forgotten Queens mod on the workshop and you will be able do play it, with a lot of new features for hiveminds : ascension perk, organic ships set, their own kind of ecumenopolis, bunch of new civics (including the "necroswarm" thing.)

And for the fair price of nothing

 

[Zarpaulus]

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.

I don't think it would be "that" overpowered, newly conquered POPs are a pain in the ass, especially before you have the techs and manpower to effectively suppress them.

And you'll only be able to convert three of them to fungus zombies every decades.

 

[Chilango2]

It's nice to know that with this expansion Stellaris will finally be Warhammer 40k compliant.

 

[mial42]

I don't think it would be "that" overpowered, newly conquered POPs are a pain in the ass, especially before you have the techs and manpower to effectively suppress them.

And you'll only be able to convert three of them to fungus zombies every decades.

I've never had issues with conquering primitives or rushing down other empires early on even as slavers; if my stability target is 20% instead of 40% it's even easier. You can always resettle some of the primitives back to your homeworld to dilute the unhappiness and avoid stellar culture shock. The conversion rate doesn't matter; more pops is always better then less pops, and an origin that effectively nearly triples your starting pops and makes your first two colonizations almost free is ridiculous.

 

[coho]

[

I don't think it would be "that" overpowered, newly conquered POPs are a pain in the ass, especially before you have the techs and manpower to effectively suppress them.

And you'll only be able to convert three of them to fungus zombies every decades.

More the issue there is that it's cheap to get your first two starying worlds with the 80% habitability which since this origin is based on syncretic evolution (seriously why is everyone missing that you start with a whole second species on your homeworld) you basically will use them as your chaff and the model for your empire while you can focus the main species on leadership roles and specialty jobs like research. With that +80 year lifespan and this build i can see some strong Philosphier kings spawning as the leaders will generate more and last longer. Particularly if a update comes with makes leaders and political factions more important.

 

[Kalenicus]

The novel gameplay from these civics and origin looks great. That being said, I can’t help but feel disappointed in a couple of things.

For one, Necroids absolutely feel like a species that would be best served by a unique trait like Lithoids.

And second, while Necrophage sounds awesome and the origin sounds like great fun, in its current iteration it doesn’t fit the death theme at all. It almost feels like an origin idea for a parasite species that was plopped into the Necroid theme. I think thematically it works better to rename the origin and let it be what it truly is; about a parasite race, not about death.

Necrophage sounds awesome as an actual plague, biological or technological, murdering other species and converting them to Necroids. I’d love to see that as an origin, on top of a Necroid specific trait. Let the civics remain as they are, they’re fine. That’s my 2 cents.

 

[Pale Blue]

So we get a parasitic lifeform origin, something hive players wanted for a very long time, but it is locked for Hives? Why do you do this to us?

Please, please make it available for Hives.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

I suspect it's locked for hives due to the way hiveminds handle pops and jobs, which at the same time is tied to the way the game deals with living conditions and citizenship rights.

 

[LeSingeAffame]

I suspect it's locked for hives due to the way hiveminds handle pops and jobs, which at the same time is tied to the way the game deals with living conditions and citizenship rights.

That's an excuse a modder, who doesn't have the time and the resources to handle every edge case, can make. Not the developers of the game.

 

[CrazyJ]

That's an excuse a modder, who doesn't have the time and the resources to handle every edge case, can make. Not the developers of the game.

True but since when have the devs given a damn about edge cases?

 

[OnyxAbussos]

Nice

 

[Incompetent]

-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.

It's worse than that, actually. It's a penalty that could really hurt the AI, but at worst it will cost the player the locked growth penalty, because a player will never allow pops with this trait to occupy the growth slot on a planet (lock it instead on whatever fast-growing species you have, starting with your original underling species).

Looks like if you do take Necrophage origin, Lithoid primary species is the way to go: the early-game downsides of Lithoids (less population growth, eating more valuable minerals instead of food) are essentially bypassed, while the upsides stack up, and in particular it becomes really easy to have your early-game leaders survive all the way to the endgame, without going synth.

Then again, you could just go synth, which is clearly better than everything else in the long run and will remain so unless there are some huge balance changes.
Necrophages: Necrophytes must perform 10 years of rituals to be elevated into the glorious master race.
Synths: Haha upload machine go brrr, robot factory go brrr

 

[CrazyJ]

Synths: Haha upload machine go brrr, robot factory go brrr

is it weird that i laughed at this?

 

[Orinsul]

No necromatic automation or undead in industry its only for war?

It'd be nice if rather than just negative population growth, but have a flag that turns population growth off entirely. Maybe even locks new pop creation from colonies, so you could ONLY get new pops through conversion.

 

[Zxcpoi]

Is it possible to make more Ithkulish (no sf unexplainable necroparasites) flavour of this species?

 

[Annihilat0r]

Another week. Another DD not addressing the collapsing state of the game.

devs read the room. the forum is on fire and you post this crap?

Im probably a bit unique in my opinions but this seems to be a bit out of character/theme for stellaris.

So here is a wild theory.

I assume the devs are well aware of all the flaws in the game, including some the community hasn't even noticed yet. I also assume they pour their heart and soul into the development of the game and want to be proud of their work. I furthermore assume that they are not in charge of setting milestones and assigning manpower accordingly, they probably have a project manager for that, who in turn has a business manager on top of him, etc.

A year ago, they managed to convince those people to delay Federations in order to work on some urgently needed improvements regarding the performance of the game. This year, it is unlikely to get another delay approved unless A. the customers are still really unhappy and B. this affects sales of the game.

So what would you do if you were a dev?

You stop talking about fixes, because you currently don't have the time to work on them and the community will become more vocal about the issues (A). For the next cosmetic DLC you design something cool, but a bit risky. Aquatics would probably sell really well, regardless of the current state of the game. Necros would probably sell well if the customers were happy, but might not sell so well in the current situation (B). Together, this might give the devs the leverage they need to get more time for fixes....

 

[FailFailWin]

Honestly thought for a second that 'post mortem' referred to the current state of the game and you were announcing work on Stellaris 2. which given current trust levels, I would not buy.

And seriously? One dev reply and It's not even to address the elephant in the room that gave the post as many dislikes as likes? Really?