Stellaris Dev Diary #246 - Announcing Overlord

[Alfha Robby]

doesn't seem we got more planet climate and civics for machine and hive mind empires, at least that one origin for hive mind and planetary scale ring world megastructure make me looking forward for it.

also that vassal image seems like what xenophile, xenophobe and materialist fallen empire would use to its subject, i hope it isn't something like tributary that give resources, signatory where you get more influence and protect them, science thingy that give research points like physics, engineering and society.

 

[Lorenerd11]

also that vassal image seems like what xenophile, xenophobe and materialist fallen empire would use to its subject

I do hope fallen empire subjects get something interesting too!

 

[Jon the Wizard]

Oh please tell me there's some changes to allow me to make a religious empire that can unify the galaxy, like a Spiritualist version of Megacorps.

 

[Quirky77]

Well i am very happy to see vassals get much needed love, I am going to echo the sentiment that internal affairs as a whole need a large rework(although i suppose to an extent vassals are internal as well as external)

Generally, i think the main things i want in stellaris are better and more organic internal affairs, mixed with an actually decent replacement to empire sprawl - Which would probably be largely baked into said internal systems. I could and have ranted for vast amounts of time about my hatred of how poorly systems implemented to reign in rapid conquest have worked and so really don't want to get into it.

As far as external systems go, i feel Espionage could use an upgrade, but is good enough for now. Military i feel is largely done for new features, unless you are about to turn Stellaris into Hoi4, and diplomacy seems to have run into the wall of making AI that can actually be interesting to do diplomacy with, so i don't expect much better.

 

[Quirky77]

Well i am very happy to see vassals get much needed love, I am going to echo the sentiment that internal affairs as a whole need a large rework(although i suppose to an extent vassals are internal as well as external)

Generally, i think the main things i want in stellaris are better and more organic internal affairs, mixed with an actually decent replacement to empire sprawl - Which would probably be largely baked into said internal systems. I could and have ranted for vast amounts of time about my hatred of how poorly systems implemented to reign in rapid conquest have worked and so really don't want to get into it.

As far as external systems go, i feel Espionage could use an upgrade, but is good enough for now. Military i feel is largely done for new features, unless you are about to turn Stellaris into Hoi4, and diplomacy seems to have run into the wall of making AI that can actually be interesting to do diplomacy with, so i don't expect much better.

On a more positive note, i am highly optimistic that this update will make vassals worth having beyond being a delayed form of conquering.

 

[Cry_Havok]

On a more positive note, i am highly optimistic that this update will make vassals worth having beyond being a delayed form of conquering.

Hey, they ALSO make factions happy, so that's two uses!

 

[Lord Valdyr]

That might be because we've just announced it and haven't had time to do the follow up dev diaries? Give us a couple of weeks

I'll give you a couple minutes, final offer

 

[UltimateTobi]

I think it's time to implement a mechanic to improve relations between two other empires (especially when you try to build a federation).
You could use the First Contact window for that and have an Envoy work his/her way through.
Or, even simpler, the more static approach like Improve Relations already is; an additional button "Improve Relations With..." and then you can choose the target empire. Costs and duration up for debate.

 

[stilgarpl]

To be blunt: I want galactic taxation and the ability to hold hour-long speeches that everyone is forced to listen to.

You have that ability right now. Pause the game and start making that speech in front of your computer. The whole galaxy will have to listen and wait until you decide to unpause.

 

[Getty]

There's an emerging school of thought that the internal political rework could be a free patch in the manner of the unity update rather than a dedicated expansion, as an internal political rework could not be held behind a paywall (previous paradox games have shown the consequences of paywalling a new feature behind an expansion, but the new feature was so consequential it became increasingly difficult to design the game between the haves and have nots).

Situations are actually a big chunk of an internal political rework as they allow for event chains to happen that would otherwise be too easy to manipulate.

I would argue the other major components are a faction rework so that factions behave more meaningfully AND an espionage upgrade so that you can use your envoys to manipulate factions (such as encouraging your ideology in a neighbouring empire and trying to bring a friendly government to power). Perhaps even a measure of internal espionage against native political movements.

That would be very nice. However internal politics is so important to the point where putting the emphasis of the new expansion coming along the internal politics update onto vassals and "overlording" may be a reason to worry because it might take away from getting a deeper internal politics system. Then again, this could be a megacorp situation, with a new bold type of separate empire (the titular corporate empires) coming along global, and widely positive, changes to core game mechanics that make the game better. Even if the original introduction of the buildings, districts and jobs system was quite messy, it was an overwhelming improvement in the short and long term, even with the deep performance problems it had (and still has, to a much lesser extent).

In this case it would be the vassal mechanics and empire types coming along a massive overhaul for internal politics and institutions as a whole, which would be the absolute dream. Then again, whilst as time passes, inserting the internal politics update becomes increasingly difficult, if you ask me whether I would rather have a relatively shallow internal politics update with the overlord expansion, or rather to have the internal politics update in the future but with greater depth, I would say that I would much rather have a better internal politics update later and wait longer, because, once the internal politics update comes in, the way internal politics will work will be mostly set and subject to little structural change, so it is far more important to nail that internal politics structural change than to bring out something half baked or, even worse, lacking in ambition and depth.

 

[Lorenerd11]

The only/most relevant question I have at this time is- is vassal-integration gone entirely?

I think it would make sense if integration were limited to AI-controlled empires, and unavailable for player-controlled ones.

It would be interesting if integration was also no longer a simple timer, but rather an extended event integrated (haha) with the new Situation system and, depending on how loyal the vassal is, the integration can either go smoothly, or less so.

 

[MonsterBD]

I was hoping some religion rework. Currently, there's not much I can do about it, except for the 2-3 buttons of interaction,

 

[Obeliskkai]

That would be very nice. However internal politics is so important to the point where putting the emphasis of the new expansion coming along the internal politics update onto vassals and "overlording" may be a reason to worry because it might take away from getting a deeper internal politics system. Then again, this could be a megacorp situation, with a new bold type of separate empire (the titular corporate empires) coming along global, and widely positive, changes to core game mechanics that make the game better. Even if the original introduction of the buildings, districts and jobs system was quite messy, it was an overwhelming improvement in the short and long term, even with the deep performance problems it had (and still has, to a much lesser extent).

In this case it would be the vassal mechanics and empire types coming along a massive overhaul for internal politics and institutions as a whole, which would be the absolute dream. Then again, whilst as time passes, inserting the internal politics update becomes increasingly difficult, if you ask me whether I would rather have a relatively shallow internal politics update with the overlord expansion, or rather to have the internal politics update in the future but with greater depth, I would say that I would much rather have a better internal politics update later and wait longer, because, once the internal politics update comes in, the way internal politics will work will be mostly set and subject to little structural change, so it is far more important to nail that internal politics structural change than to bring out something half baked or, even worse, lacking in ambition and depth.

Well the emerging school of thought is player base only, as we are trying to explain why we have a vassal mechanic expansion rather than an internal politics rework. It is completely out of left field in a way. If there is indeed an internal political rework expansion, it would now be over a year away and that would make the decision to go with a vassal expansion somewhat baffling.

We are attempting to rationalise that decision, hence the idea internal politics will be dealt with by the Custodian team. Although if it turns out internal politics is also a part and parcel of Overlord, as Megacorp included the planetary rework, that would also be very welcome.

Internal Politics needs the situation system, and the situation system needs both a faction revamp and an espionage upgrade to function at it's best. Not to mention they have consistenly brought up an 'Institution' system they would like to implement, and for which I have to assume they take inspiration from the Victoria idea of the same name. The contours of the internal politics rework are pretty much known, the question is how will it be implemented? And will it be soon or will it be it's own expansion in over a year from now?

 

[fourteenfour]

Considering how many NEW bugs cropped up in 3.3.3 and 3.3.4 will you please go back and do what your team promised the Custodian Team was supposed be doing?

Seriously, you are introducing bugs faster than fixing them now.

 

[Sirfreg]

Nice

 

[Peepijeep]

The next dlc will be amazing! Stellaris becomes better and better!

 

[OrdinaryDays]

Can I design a 'Galactic Womb' vassal state in this DLC?

 

[ZeeHero]

Will there be a shipset? if so I hope they take inspiration from the ones they didn't use when creating previous ones like the Nemesis ships.

Also, reminder that Vassal politics count as internal. since they are under your authority their politics are also your concern.

 

[Millbot]

Again, people are also forgetting that an expansion is about new content. An internal politics rework isn't new content, that's actually fixing issues with base content and that's not something they are going to do as an expansion. Sure you criticize paradox for a number of things, but they aren't the type of garbage company that would pull that kind of crap. We always get a huge free patch with new expansions and that's where the internal politics stuff is going to show up and of course it didn't get mentioned here because the thread is about announcing the new expansion, not announcing features that will be part of the free update.

 

[Obeliskkai]

Again, people are also forgetting that an expansion is about new content. An internal politics rework isn't new content, that's actually fixing issues with base content and that's not something they are going to do as an expansion. Sure you criticize paradox for a number of things, but they aren't the type of garbage company that would pull that kind of crap. We always get a huge free patch with new expansions and that's where the internal politics stuff is going to show up and of course it didn't get mentioned here because the thread is about announcing the new expansion, not announcing features that will be part of the free update.

But we aren't sure of that, hence the confusion.

We know for example from the few times it has been mentioned that the developers would like something called Institutions to be a part of the internal politics rework, yet all we have of them is the name and a comparison to the Victoria 3 system of the same name (which also deals with internal politics). Not even a hint has been provided of what they would be in practice.

People aren't hating on Overlord in my opinion. It looks like good, exciting, solid content. But for months the working assumption seems to have been Internal Politics would be the focus of the expansion because internal politics badly, badly needs it. Couple that with the situations system, which really needs internal politics to work at it's full potential, and what is happening is just that people are a bit surprised by the choices involved. The choices aren't bad mind you, in the same way that if you were expecting someone to bring you an ice cream and they instead brought you a cream cake you could hardly say you were short changed, BUT if you were expecting an ice cream you'd have spent an interval time eagerly awaiting that ice cream.

Now I genuinely hope you are right and internal politics will be overhauled in the near future, either as part of the update or as a part of a subsequent custodian patch, but at the moment it is also possible that internal politics has been punted to a future expansion which is more than a year away.