Stellaris Dev Diary #237 - Reworking Unity, Part One

[CometBliss]

Oh I wanted to ask Necrophage Hiveminds will the slaves they have able to do jobs? Or will they always remain as livestock?

 

[Maethendias]

here is a question, how do i stop getting messaged when someone comments on this thread?

cause i cant just unsub from it, ... for whatever reason

 

[Fulgrymm]

here is a question, how do i stop getting messaged when someone comments on this thread?

cause i cant just unsub from it, ... for whatever reason

The only way I could do it was to go into my account settings and stop watching all threads at once.

 

[Shaeliss]

- It seems kinda weird that Megastructures require Unity as part of their build cost. Influence made sense insofar as it's the resource used to claim planets and systems, so habitats and other Megastructures follow on from that. Unity, as a metric of internal cohesion, doesn't make a lot of sense to pay in huge lump sums, especially for a massive monument to "we're doing well as a society". I'd propose no Unity cost to make (I'd keep the Influence cost over all Megastructues; it is a big claim to all your neighbours, particularly a Sentry Array, Strategic Co-ordination Center or Mega-Shipyard, all of which have real-world equivalents that have caused foreign stress at various times), but a Unity upkeep for incomplete Megastructures. This would represent the populace getting kinda sick of your big half-finished project sitting there useless absorbing the alloys they made with their own tentacles. Political will is pretty hard to model, though, so I get it.

I'm still very much on-board with the new uses of Unity, as a flexible non-Energy resource has the potential to change things up a bit, hopefully with countries able to get by with PURE NATIONAL FERVOR to make up for their lesser infastructure, which sounds like fun roleplay.

"The Science Nexus, our pinnacle of scientific advancement for the betterment of our people, was meant to be a reality in 20 years... That was 80 years ago."

Plus, it would give a cost to the decision of leaving a megastructure partially built only to start another one that's better now that I have that specific structure tech.

 

[syneti]

The only way I could do it was to go into my account settings and stop watching all threads at once.

Another way is just ignore the new post announcement each time you click to see it will update you. However if you ignore it you'll only be notified once . unless people reply to your comments

 

[Maethendias]

Another way is just ignore the new post announcement each time you click to see it will update you. However if you ignore it you'll only be notified once . unless people reply to your comments

why did they remove the unwatch button for dev diaries anyways...

 

[DeanTheDull]

Oh I wanted to ask Necrophage Hiveminds will the slaves they have able to do jobs? Or will they always remain as livestock?

Nothing in the update suggests any reason to change a core hivemind mechanic, or would impact the Necro-purge option for converting livestock into drones.

If anything, the unity rework is a buff to Necrophages due to their unity-from-conversion tradition in the synchronicity tree.

 

[Mealya]

why did they remove the unwatch button for dev diaries anyways...

It was a passed resolution of the Galactic council.

 

[CometBliss]

Nothing in the update suggests any reason to change a core hivemind mechanic, or would impact the Necro-purge option for converting livestock into drones.

If anything, the unity rework is a buff to Necrophages due to their unity-from-conversion tradition in the synchronicity tree.

That is a fair argument unity rework I would see them changing that and prioritizing that, but if it is the custodian update then they do many reworks I think. I let my post be the last ones so the devs don't feel pressured. They work very hard game development is not easy as people think, sorry a bit off topic but I can hope they change some things not only the unity rework. Also I am a bit confused for unity are they trying to make it equal to research so like materialist vs spiritualist whole ordeal? like instead of researching psionic theory you get it as a unity or is technology still gonna be a thing. Also can admirals get a passive way to level up? They don't just level up on their own doing nothing its sad

 

[DeanTheDull]

That is a fair argument unity rework I would see them changing that and prioritizing that, but if it is the custodian update then they do many reworks I think. I let my post be the last ones so the devs don't feel pressured. They work very hard game development is not easy as people think, sorry a bit off topic but I can hope they change some things not only the unity rework. Also I am a bit confused for unity are they trying to make it equal to research so like materialist vs spiritualist whole ordeal? like instead of researching psionic theory you get it as a unity or is technology still gonna be a thing. Also can admirals get a passive way to level up? They don't just level up on their own doing nothing its sad

Unity-based edicts will make unity a pop-efficiency resource akin to technology. Aside from Traditions, the ability to run more edicts with more unity production will allow for more effective- and efficient- empires, though the exact degrees will depend on the conversion rates.

One way to think of it is that while materialist will get more technologies faster, spiritualists will be able to get more value out of them due to being able to afford more of the edicts unlocked by technology.

 

[Obeliskkai]

Please, do something with Empire Capital planet designation. As of now it appears to be the weakest planetary designation and the first thing to do with it is to relocate it to some useless small planet/habitat

Make being the capital a planetary modifier and allow us to designate the capital as we feel like, I believe that would be the easiest solution.

 

[jackalope81]

I almost exclusively play unity based empires in mods. Specifically mods that add traditions, ascension perks, and pop and civic traits that allow that playstyle. I'm talking getting a selection every 5-8 months unity focused.

The reason people ignore unity is because the base ascension tree is scant in options and generally not powerful as are most of the ascension perks. Tripling both the number of traditions and perks in the base unmodded game would be a good start. Could also do so for the pop and empire traits. Also uncap how many traditions you can have base game. That makes it look to people like a limited thing to get over the course of a whole game.

I don't think removing the sprawl mechanic solves the problem. It just replaces spamming bureaucrats with spamming researchers and perhaps unity generators. You should also add some artifacts and create a mechanic where new sites can be found in your existing territory by spending unity or allow exploring sites on other's territory with spending influence. I mostly expand in my games for archeology sites. You could also allow generation of new science anomalies in already surveyed systems to find rare techs.

In other words don't nerf wide. Just find ways to buff tall.

Unity to add civic slots would also be good.

 

[methegrate]

There's other factors that play into it as well.

Not to give the other poster too much credit, but there's something to his point about fleet size vs. fleet power.

Is it worth considering having power projection based on the empire's total fleet power relative to its sprawl, rather than its fleet size? That way fleet size still plays into it (the number of ships you have is important to your fleet's strength) but it also can incorporate the firepower your fleet brings to bear. I'd certainly be more influenced by speedboat with a bazooka, after all, than a galleon armed with longbows.

That could let more defensive empires flex their diplomatic muscles too, since a fleet power system could also account for starbase strength. (Presumably disregarding outposts.) It would even be somewhat consistent with existing mechanics, since influence is supposed to be the external resource now and diplomatic weight already uses fleet power.

 

[TheRevanchist25]

I don't think removing the sprawl mechanic solves the problem. It just replaces spamming bureaucrats with spamming researchers and perhaps unity generators. You should also add some artifacts and create a mechanic where new sites can be found in your existing territory by spending unity or allow exploring sites on other's territory with spending influence. I mostly expand in my games for archeology sites. You could also allow generation of new science anomalies in already surveyed systems to find rare techs.

In other words don't nerf wide. Just find ways to buff tall.

Unity to add civic slots would also be good.

It's shocking how no one seems to realise this obvious fact. Your just spamming a different thing now, it's not fixing anything.

 

[Critical Ethics]

It's shocking how no one seems to realise this obvious fact. Your just spamming a different thing now, it's not fixing anything.

There's a considerable difference between building multiple things to account for the varied effects of a mechanic vs spamming one thing to entirely negate a mechanic at the source. It's the same as the difference between building a starbase at a pulsar and loading the defence stations up with armour, hull, and plasma cannons vs building normal stations and putting an "Actually everything has shields like normal lol" module on it. There being no dedicated sprawl canceller also means they can introduce interesting and varied sprawl reducers. Your capital producing less sprawl is very interesting and will have knock on effects for a few different origins. Void dwellers will get minimal benefits out of it for example, while a ringworld or other large homeworld start will have a Very Good Time.

 

[BrokenSky]

Unity to add civic slots would also be good.

I feel like "make an ascension perk which gives a civic slot" would be the way to do this one.

 

[Naomi2]

I really love the idea's of changing up unity but i am not a fan of reworking Admin, as someone who loves making multiple colonies each specialising in a thing it is not unusal for me to get 20+ planets by the end of a normal game and without a way to gain admin this would be crippling.

 

[TheRevanchist25]

There's a considerable difference between building multiple things to account for the varied effects of a mechanic vs spamming one thing to entirely negate a mechanic at the source. It's the same as the difference between building a starbase at a pulsar and loading the defence stations up with armour, hull, and plasma cannons vs building normal stations and putting an "Actually everything has shields like normal lol" module on it. There being no dedicated sprawl canceller also means they can introduce interesting and varied sprawl reducers. Your capital producing less sprawl is very interesting and will have knock on effects for a few different origins. Void dwellers will get minimal benefits out of it for example, while a ringworld or other large homeworld start will have a Very Good Time.

No, because the resources "taxes" you'll be forced with due to being over the cap the entire game, means nothing, because the game drowns you in resources non stop. The only "consequence" that's worth anything, is the research time increase, which is negated by just spamming tech labs instead.

 

[shrimpboom8]

I did feel like being able to infinitely increase admin capacity was self defeating, and given that I already play spiritualists regularly, I'm glad to see a boost to the effectiveness of unity.

 

[pevergreen]

here is a question, how do i stop getting messaged when someone comments on this thread?

cause i cant just unsub from it, ... for whatever reason

why did they remove the unwatch button for dev diaries anyways...

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll put a suggestion forward to fix that up.