Stellaris Dev Diary #241 - Unity Open Beta and the Dev Clash

[Eladrin]

Is there a new feedback thread for 3.3.1 to separate it from the fun of 3.3.0?

Not specifically, since the 3.3.1 changes aren't up on the open beta branch. If everything goes well, those changes will be going live together with 3.3 when it releases.

We still don't have the release date of the release date of the public release of 3.3.x

Correct, we haven't given a release date announcement more specific than "February". So "soon". (Edit: Barring unforeseen circumstances.)

 

[Enfield_PDX]

We're not done with the unity rework, we anticipate and have planned to have to tweak things contiuinely going forward (Post launch I am expecting at the very least to adjust numbers for balance reasons) We've just hit what we can manage in the time we have left.

The Open beta was a great success but only a single digit percentage of the total players participated. so we'd be foolish not to give ourselves some room to maneuever once it hits the mainstream playerbase.


What to do about Influence is also being discussed, but the rework is only one part of a much grander scheme.

 

[Eladrin]

does 'can not sustain upkeep' mean a monthly negative, or a total balance?

Running entirely out of your Unity (or other resource) stockpile and going into an actual deficit.

Something I'm not clear on is if the leader cost will go down as you lose leaders and go below 6, or if it just goes up.

Leader costs are based on the number of leaders you currently have in your empire. It goes up and down as the number of leaders does. (There's just a minimum cost below a certain point.)

Hopefully "AI Megacorps should spawn half as often as before now" applies when playing a Megacorp too?

Yes.

Even tho unity change should became a buff for spiritualists it changes nothing since their unity output is the same as regular empires

One of the 3.3.1 changes has significant effect, where they now get their entire bonuses to Unity Cost and Upkeep reductions.

 

[Eladrin]

I see how you try to push spiritualist, but to what effect? Them having better science than materialists, due to unity and sprawl? I think this doesn't make much sense both as a game mechanic and from an RP perspective...

The Empire Size effects on costs don't scale to the point that this is likely to occur.

Spiritualists have some advantages with Unity generation and the use of Edicts, and should be able to gain their Traditions and Ascension Perks at a better rate than the Materialists.

I'm curious whether you're planning to make this standard going forward if this kind of open beta feedback time will be reserved for bigger changes like the unity/influence change.

The Open Beta was extremely useful to gather information and feedback, and adjust things a bit within limits. I have a positive impression of the experience overall, and will push for more in the future if there are similar proposals that we want more data on than we can reasonably gather internally.

Did you also fix the issue where Rogue Servitors didn't have access to the Alpha Hub and start with an Uplink Node?

Also, there's an issue where bio trophies aren't getting several important output modifiers because of how they're categorized. Mainly the capital productivity boosts and empire capital designation. Plus they don't get any of the unity boosts administrators get, making things like the unity designation nearly worthless for Rogue Servitors.

Yes to the Uplink Node part. They shouldn't have the Alpha Hub as they don't have Administrators.

We switched the capital designation bonus to affect all production, which should also affect Bio-Trophies. Bio-Trophies remain as their own unique non-administrator category.

I'll make a note for a review of the different edicts, designations, and techs available to the Servitors.

 

[Eladrin]

Wait..... does that mean, RS are supposed to have access to the normal unity building? Cause everyone here points out that they are demolishing those because they are not supposed to be able to build them.

They should have access to the "monument" equivalent that grants Unity based on APs and boosts planet-wide Unity production, and should be able to upgrade it fully. We briefly had it backwards.

 

[Enfield_PDX]

I find the closing of the feedback period, then this dev diary having little information on changes being made in major mechanics, rather worrying. Spiritualists getting a little buff and edict fund improvements are nice, but it looks like with the 3.3.1 changes, things will still be fundamentally broken, and there's a lot unanswered about the approach being taken for many other problems from the beta.

Disappointing to see that the beta feedback only led to limited, numbers-based changes. The takeaway from the beta response should have been "the Planetary Ascenssion system needs more time in the oven altogether", considering everyone agrees it's completely flavorless, uninteresting and adds needless micro.

I feel like this is a Failure on our part to communicate the intent of the beta and how it works with the custodians release schedule + our future plans for Stellaris.

In short, the Beta was intended to gather feedback to see if the rework was viable, if it achieved our aims for the game (I would detail them but that's more of an Eldarin thing). As of 3.3.1 while not perfect, we are of the belief that it does improve the state of the game but this does not mean we are done improving it!

However, to build the foundations of Stellaris' future we need to maintain our release cadence of reliable updates from the Custodian team. I understand the fear of Asecnsion Tiers staying as they are forever for example, we've had times in the past where there have been big gaps between patches.

But that's not how things work now, That does not mean don't critique or let us know what is or isn't working for you. That helps us keep track of what we should be focusing on, but it does mean keeping the new state of Stellaris in mind.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Eladrin]

Yeah, it seems apparent the Stellaris team has switched more to a service-style iteration method, with a ~3-4 month deployment cadence. What doesn't get fully finished in time for one patch can be refined and adjusted in the next, with continuous improvement in the game over time. This means on the one hand, we'll sometimes get systems that feel unpolished (e.g. planetary ascension), but on the other hand, we get more predictable and regular releases so we won't have to wait a largely unknown time or until a major dlc to see further changes.

My guess is 3.4 is thus tentatively targeted for late-May/early-June, though with Swedish holidays around then, I'm not sure if they'll bump it until after their break.

I'd say this is pretty accurate. One of the best parts of the Custodian cadence is knowing that we'll have an update approximately once every three months.

 

[MonzUn]

Something I'm not clear on is if the leader cost will go down as you lose leaders and go below 6, or if it just goes up.

As far as I know, it stays at 100 until you go over the starting leader amount and from there on, the cost is relative to how many leaders you currently have.

 

[MonzUn]

Good stuff!

Hopefully "AI Megacorps should spawn half as often as before now" applies when playing a Megacorp too? IIRC the chance of spawning AI Megacorps was increased for that case. Rationale being to make the game more interesting, practice being that among gestalts, megacorps and purifiers it was hard to find an AI empire that could accept a branch office.

It applies always.

As far as I'm aware, there was never any bias when the player was a Megacorp (apart from the player itself not affecting the randomization).
I personally believe it's that players are more aware of the amount of Megacorps in the galaxy when they themselves are a megacorp.

Their spawn rate was quite high overall though and I think this was a side effect rather than random weight balancing issues.

 

[MonzUn]

Hey, pretty important issue I just noticed. A lot of enforcer jobs for the AI are remaining unfilled even when a planet is in complete chaos from high crime.

Bug reports should go into the bug reports forum, or they are likely to be missed by QA
That being said, are you on the latest beta?
I have a vague memory of a colleague fixing this one already.

 

[MonzUn]

Yeah, sorry I'll report it officially. Yes, I'm on the latest public beta, no mods.

It seems to be mostly fixed, but it's still happening with some empires. A handful of empires will start off with their Enforcer job unfilled and they will just keep it that way forever it seems. Even as more enforcer jobs become available they don't seem to fill. I saw this happening to my own empire, a few times, but that may have been in an earlier beta.

If you want to try reproducing it, just start a game with max empires so you get a big sample size, observe the game, and just check each empire's capital world. There will likely be 3 or 4 doing this.

Honestly I have no idea what is causing this. I couldn't find any sort of pattern.

Ah, yeah then we're probably both right
Best to make a bug report to show this off. Make sure to get a save game in there and point to a planet where this is happening.
You could also point out that it's been claimed to be fixed, but that the fix only seem partial.
Thanks!