Stellaris Dev Diary #246 - Announcing Overlord

[TimeMask]

Finally more methods to roleplay Ur-Quan

(also really glad we get at least one new AI personality finally)

 

[Zxcpoi]

Expected Spiritualist DLC
But glad to see such third dipolmatic DLC as used to vassalize enemies usually

 

[DurianKing]

Would not be surprised if the internal faction rework is part of the free patch cause its not really something you can put behind a paywall

Definitely agree. If internal politics is going to get a fundamental rework then it needs to be available to all players. Situations sound like they could have a lot of utility here, unity rework was already a step in that direction. Neither of these are gated behind DLC.

Once the fundamentals are sorted then I’d expect to see some fancier internal politics stuff in DLC. In the meantime, I’m excited that the team isn’t done with diplomacy. I wonder how this system will work with the galactic empire…

 

[Me_]

View attachment 817052​

A Subterranean Origin?

I wonder if the Psionic origin will actually be the one for hive minds, allowing them to go psionic. There is some game lore that hive minds use low-level psionic.

 

[NilsFabian]

Very much appreciated.
I love the new stuff. Thank you.

Now I can really rule the galaxy with an iron clenched tentacle.

What does Soon means? April?

 

[Darrenb209]

What does Soon means? April?

I sincerely hope that's a joke or you're in for a massive disappointment.

"Soon" in game development can be anywhere from 2-3 months to literal years.

 

[Liggi]

It's coming alongside the 3.4 patch, which has been slated for May.

 

[TheRevanchist25]

Paradox invoked the Trademarked version of "Soon" for a DLC?
Put me back in hypersleep...

 

[TheRevanchist25]

Well...

View attachment 819635


This looks to me like something's "eating" the ships, not that they're passing through a gateway of some kind.

 

[Cassilda]

I was hoping for a more internal politics focused expansion, but the theme seems interesting nonetheless

 

[Asran]

Seems potentially interesting, as vassals could make large empires more interesting and dynamic by introducing a layer of "internal" politics between vassals and overlords, as well as make large empires more fragile.

However, I am bit afraid that the end result of the new systems will still be that vassals are simply way less efficient than directly controlling the territory yourself, and blobbing as much as you can will remain the top strategy by a large margin.

 

[kwheeler]

Looks very exciting and promising!

Please Please Please, we need to the ability to build gateways in our vassals, tributaries, etc!

Or at least (a) the ability to instruct our vassals that they produce X number of gates on their own, or (b) the ability for us to plant a gate in their space if we pony up the funds for it.

 

[Lorenerd11]

Thats because, IIRC, those hairstyles, beards and clothes were made by some modder instead of the original Paradox artists. Thats why it looks so absolutely bad and you get leaders that look like Ned Flanders.

Then why were they added?

 

[Zxcpoi]

It seems we are pushed intentionally to use Overlord as wide empires are now nerfed

 

[Obeliskkai]

What do you call "unatural hive" ?

Current gestalts evolved naturally that way.

The best idea for this new hive origin is a run of the mill civilization which had a gestalt hive mind imposed upon it.

Think Yuri from Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. So if your civilization's origin was that of a despotic super villain creating a collective consciouness patterned after their own mind, this would be the origin for you.

 

[Obeliskkai]

so, externally focused rather than internally? disappointed

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.

 

[Chaospling]

I am not all that excited, Stellaris desperately needs deeper mechanics which allow for more playstyles than conquer anything.
I guess vassals could be described as doing that but I had hoped for bigger changes to the core gameplay. But I guess the game is too old for such experiments.
But who knows what else is part of the DLC. The information here and on Steam is a little sparse.

What kind of playstyle, do you have in mind?

 

[Foxosaur]

You sir are a legend for posting something from TF the movie. *salute*

 

[Twamley101]

Very exciting!

One quick question, will we be able to rename vassals? I know we can name ones we create but I want to be able to rename empires I subjugate. Its purely for RP purposes but I think it would be fun

 

[SeraphAscending]

It seems we are pushed intentionally to use Overlord as wide empires are now nerfed

I see it differently. It was orders of magnitudes too easy to keep an empire spanning 50% of the galaxy together. (Too easy = nothing even slightly in your way of doing it, in this case.) That needed to be fixed. And the new Empire Size mechanic is the step they took in starting to chip away at that problem. (And Wide is still waaaaaaay stronger than Tall, so calling it a "nerf" is a stretch.)

I think they wanted empire size, vassalisation and situations as stepping stones to building a coherent realm with internal politics. Before the empire size rework there wasn't even a decent lever that you could pull for internal politics.
They will probably make it really hard to keep a really large empire as a union together, but you can still try with some downsides. Having specialised vassals cuts down massively on micromanagement, makes MP more interesting for the defeated side of a war and adds a lot more realism regarding empire coherence. I do think this would add to my overall game experience.