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Stellaris Dev Diary #247 - New Ways to Rule

Hello everyone!

In the Overlord Announcement last week we mentioned that vassalization mechanics will be undergoing some significant changes in the 3.4 “Cepheus” update. (Click here to wishlist!)

Previously in Stellaris, subjugation was rarely a more compelling option than simple conquest, and being subjugated often essentially meant a permanent decline of your empire and a “Game Over” screen in your near future. Subjects did not offer sufficient benefits nor had the freedoms necessary to be enjoyable to play.

The Scion origin from Federations was somewhat of an exception with most of the restrictions on both subjects and overlord being waived for them, but we felt that while the system was good, it could be even better. It would also be nice for the Scion to work within the rules rather than being so “special-cased”.

Some people noted that as part of the unity changes in Libra, a bit more of an argument for spinning off sectors into vassals could be made, but with the current numbers it’s generally more valuable to control those systems directly.

For today’s dev diary, I’ll start by delving deeper into the new rights and responsibilities that can appear in agreements, and some ways this makes keeping subjects more valuable.

As with all previews, numbers, text, and so on are not quite final and are still subject to change.

Negotiating Terms​


Both the overlord and subject will be able to propose alterations of the exact terms of their vassalization contract if it’s a contract with another “regular empire”. The Khan, Awakened Empires, and the like do not haggle about the terms of their minions, but are much clearer about those exact terms.

Subject contracts start with a “preset”. These are the basic subjugation types that you know from before, plus a few new ones - Vassal, Subsidiary, Tributary, Protectorate, Bulwark, and so on. Presets have a list of default terms, and can have additional unique effects tied to them, like how Protectorates gain a massive bonus to research until they catch up to their overlord.

The default terms of contract presets may have changed a bit from the old system to better fit the new. We’ve done our best to ensure that anything you can do right now with your vassals remains possible. The core Negotiation system is part of the free Cepheus update, though many of the brand new terms are part of the Overlord expansion.

Negotiable terms include things such as:
  • Can the subject be integrated?
    • As a major change from current gameplay, there are no vassalization contract presets that have integration enabled by default. It must be explicitly turned on in contract negotiations.
  • Does the subject have independent diplomacy?
    • Subjects can be given complete diplomatic freedom, none, or they can have most freedoms except are forced to vote with their overlord in the Galactic Community or Federations.
  • Can the subject expand freely?
    • Once exclusively the province of Feudal Society, now you can grant your subject the ability to freely expand. You can also bar them from expansion, or impose an Influence tithe, making them spend extra Influence (which goes to the Overlord) for the right to expand into empty systems.
    • Most presets will start with controlled expansion with the influence tithe as the default term.
  • Various subsidies from the overlord or tribute from the subject.
    • These are broken into Basic, Advanced, or Strategic resource groups, and Research.
    • The values are percentages of the production of the subject - in the proposal below, our vassal is offering 15% of their basic resource production as tribute, but is receiving a research subsidy equal to 15% of the subject’s research from the overlord.
  • Are the overlord and subject drawn into one another’s wars, and if so, which ones?
    • None, Offensive, Defensive, or Both can be selected in both directions.
    • Yes, this means that wars can be declared on subjects.
  • Can the overlord build holdings on the subject’s worlds, and if so, how many?
    • The Vassal preset has a holding limit of 1, allowing you to use some holdings without Overlord. (Though you can lower it to 0 if you need to squeeze out an extra bit of loyalty.)
    • This value is an empire-wide limit - with a holding limit of 3, you can build 3 holdings across a particular subject’s worlds, not on each of their planets.
  • Does the overlord share sensor information with their subject?

Subjugation Proposal UI

Some subject types have fixed, minimum, or maximum terms - Tributaries, Subsidiaries, and Prospectoria, for example, must always provide their overlord at least 30% of their basic resources (energy, minerals, and food) in tribute.

Part of the Tributary agreement UI

Tributaries have many locked terms.

Others can be restricted by civics or for other reasons - for example, overlords with the Feudal Society civic cannot select the Expansion Prohibited term, must join in their subject wars to some degree, and must allow their subjects some degree of diplomatic freedom.

Feudal Society civic

Different terms affect a subject’s Loyalty, and have an immediate impact as well as over time. For example, the Independent Diplomacy term grants 5 Loyalty and another +0.5 Loyalty per month. This may prove important later.

If you’re asking your subject to do something they are ideologically opposed to, those terms may cost extra loyalty, though the reverse is also true in a few cases.

Pacifists don't like being dragged into Offensive Wars

The pacifists don’t like being forced into offensive wars.

Empires can propose a change in terms with a five year cooldown at a cost of some Influence. Exact costs are still being adjusted.

Proposal from our vassal

We are feeling beneficent today, and want you to catch up to us faster, Protectorate.

How can you influence them into accepting your generous offer? Giving them a good deal is certainly helpful, and just like before, empire relations and relative power go a long way as well.

The terms themselves are heavily moddable, I look forward to seeing what some of you come up with.

The Benefits of Loyalty​

Loyalty is the “currency” used between overlord and subject, and while the Specialist empires make more use of it than regular vassals, it’s still beneficial to keep your minions loyal since it gives you more options. Loyalty is largely determined by the contract between overlord and subject, but ethical compatibility will come into play as well.

Loyal vassals will agree to more onerous terms during negotiations, and will generally support their overlord. You can also “spend” their loyalty as part of trade agreements, strong-arming them into granting you better than normal trades.

You can request a public Pledge of Loyalty to you from a loyal vassal, making them even more loyal over time.

Pledge Loyalty

Pledge Loyalty has greater effects if the subject actually likes you for some reason.

Disloyal vassals will look for ways to be free of your tyranny, seizing the chance for rebellion should you falter.

They may also swear Secret Fealty to one of your rivals in hopes that they’ll be able to follow them in an Allegiance War.

Pledge Secret Fealty

In an Allegiance War, you seek to wrest control of the vassals that have pledged Secret Fealty to you, and they will join in on the attack on their former Overlord.

Gotta Subjugate Them All​


Like herding cats, having many vassals is hard work. Constantly vying for your attention, keeping multiple subjects happy can be difficult as jealousy ruins everything. “Divided Patronage” is a modifier that reduces the loyalty of all of your vassals, and increases based on the number of vassals you have.

You can mitigate this by offering them better terms, or by taking a vassalization related civic or the Shared Destiny ascension perk.

Franchising


Shared Destiny

Overlord Holdings​

In Cepheus, we’re expanding the branch office system from MegaCorp to be more flexible.
The corporate tab on planets is being replaced with a more versatile “Holdings” tab. For now, we have corporate and overlord holdings available here, but we have more future plans for this screen.

Much like branch office buildings, holdings are built on another empire’s colonies and can provide benefits to both empires. Much like criminal syndicate branch office buildings, some holdings might be far more beneficial to one side than the other. Each particular holding is planet-unique,

Corporate overlords can build both holdings and branch offices on their subjects’ colonies.

Holdings (Ministry of Truth)

The Ministry of Truth provides two Overlord Propagandist jobs to the planet, which turn the subject’s Unity into Influence for their overlord…

Material Ministry

…While holdings like the Material Ministry are disliked by subjects as the overlord claims a portion of the planet’s production for themselves…

Aid Agency

…Still others, like the Aid Agency, are welcomed on the planet.

Splinter Hive

Hive overlords can build the most universally disliked holding (tied with one other), which takes a portion of the subject’s planet and dedicates it to a spawning complex.

We’re also adding some holdings associated with civics or origins.

Noble Chateaus

The Noble Chateaus of the Aristocratic Elite allow them to send troublemakers off to bother someone else’s planet instead of their own, much to the dismay of their hosts…

Communal Housing Outreach

…Shared Burdens empires can spread their message through Communal Housing projects. How this is received depends largely on the ethics of the subject…

Gaia Seeder Outpot

…And Gaia Seeders, who are gaining more terraforming flexibility in Cepheus as described in Dev Diary #243, can also beautify the worlds of their subjects. The subjects tend to like that - unless they’re Hydrocentric, of course.

Since there are over twenty different holdings, I’ll share some more in next week’s dev diary (including a machine specific one), and some more on social media as the Overlord reveals continue (though I’ll repost those in that week’s dev diaries as well).

It’s a very versatile system that we look forward to exploring more in the future.

The Future is Ours​


That’s long enough for today. Next week we’ll talk about the advanced form of vassalization coming in Overlord called Specialist Empires.

Also, starting with this dev diary, we’re creating video versions on the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel for those of you that prefer listening to them. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and let us know what you think!


Click here to wishlist Overlord!
 
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With tribute, for empires with the Death Cult civics, will there be any chance of subjects being able to give tribute in the form of pops or pop growth?
Or perhaps a holding which recruits pops or in a similar vein?
 
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No like you get 15 amenities on ur capital XD not lose 15 on ur capital

amanities increase happiness, happines increase stability ... with the difference that the amanities are not linear in theyr contribution ( 15 amanities may increase stability by 20% as they could increase it by 0.5% .

i can see why the increase goes directly to stability , as that way it ignore if the (noble)overlord have an "happyness" build or just push with slaves.
the bonus is more stable. i didn't see "limits" for the building either for subjects , so you can probably build it on 3 ( if you have the contract for so many) planets for evry subjects for 6% stability bonus for subject .

i don't think that will be ever a "spam this is op" building , so its not realy relevant . IF paradox doesn't make them able to go over the 100% stability on capital ofc.
 
Do we have any more information on what they are going to do with situations? Im working on a mod and wondering if that system is going to be retired or something.
 
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i imagine it would either generatea wargoal to enforce the terms when they decline like the current system. or being victorious in a subjugation war would give you a bunch of loyalty to spend.
i feel like there isnt a great solution. the first lets you impose the harshest of conditions with near impunity if you are sufficeintly strong and the second might lack a certain bite when you are strong and ruthless. things like colossus projects should have an impact.
For the second option I wonder if you could just decline in mutliplayer.
 
Quite not, I mean "opening their borders". If subject A is openning its borders with empire B and I don't want that, I want to be able to tell subject A to close its borders with empire B.
Iirc subject empire border policy is based on yours.

So If you close border to empire B then all your subjects will also close their border to empire B.
 
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Thought of something and wanted to put it here just in case. What if Criminal Heritage Megacorps get a crime immunity slider? That is basically that they force their subsidiaries to not close their branch offices. These last days was thinking of the Criminal Heritage for other threads and today thought of that option. Right now even if another empire is a subsidiary they can still close your branch offices and a problem with the criminal ones is that they are temporary since empires can close them and then you don't recover the investment. If as part of the negotiation terms you got that you could have empires that can't close their branches on them allowing you to reap the rewards and recover the investment. Any opinion about this idea? Don't know if it should be just a Criminal Heritage thing. Could be interesting to also have a criminal exile clause, you send your criminal to their empire reducing you own criminality at the cost of really annoying your vassals :)
 
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Could be interesting to also have a criminal exile clause, you send your criminal to their empire reducing you own criminality at the cost of really annoying your vassals
Sounds like a perfect example of a holding, making a Space Australia where you send your criminals, reducing crime on your worlds at the cost of increasing it on the target planet (and annoying your vassal, presumably).
 
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This looks really great and gets me moving towards my Space CKIII playthrough that I want to do.

Will vassals be able to war with one another allowing them to take territory from each other?
That would be awesome, especially with a mechanic to secretly (or openly) commit forces and resources to different sides a la the emperors betrayal of the Atreides in dune.
 
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Thought of something and wanted to put it here just in case. What if Criminal Heritage Megacorps get a crime immunity slider? That is basically that they force their subsidiaries to not close their branch offices. These last days was thinking of the Criminal Heritage for other threads and today thought of that option. Right now even if another empire is a subsidiary they can still close your branch offices and a problem with the criminal ones is that they are temporary since empires can close them and then you don't recover the investment. If as part of the negotiation terms you got that you could have empires that can't close their branches on them allowing you to reap the rewards and recover the investment. Any opinion about this idea? Don't know if it should be just a Criminal Heritage thing. Could be interesting to also have a criminal exile clause, you send your criminal to their empire reducing you own criminality at the cost of really annoying your vassals :)
I would rather see a rework of crime overall. not all criminal empires will want subjects, and all of them deserve better branch offices. at the least, syndicates need more tools to create crime so they can keep branch offices. other empires - esp. nonegalitarians - should have much more of a problem with it, even without criminal empires.
 
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Released vassals have been Merchant Guild Oligarchies since 3.1. Cepheus will apply that change to Liberation Wars as well.

I've thought it strange that empires generated from status quo peaces use the winner's government. to me, it would make more sense in general for civs subjugated in part to maintain their original ways, but under the overlord's sphere of influence.
 
@Eladrin I have a question in regard of implementation of some of those buildings.
I have noticed that plenty of Holdings have effects that affect Overlord's capital. How exactly do you achieve that? Is there any new functionality that allows you to do that? I'd love to see how exactly it is done as I'd love to incorporate similiar effect in my mod.
I specifically mean bonuses from buildings such as Splinter Hive and Noble Chateus which affect only Overlord's Capital instead of all of his planets. I'd love to do something similiar in Branch Offices but I don't know how.