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Stellaris Dev Diary #250 - Elevating Civilization

Greetings!

Last week’s dev diary went through the new Enclaves in Overlord, the Bulwark, some more Holdings, and the Imperial Fiefdom Origin. This week we’re going to look at two constructions, the Scholarium, Specialist Holdings and a summary of the origin revealed by Nivarias earlier this week.

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

Orbital Rings​


Orbital Rings are a Tier 3 Voidcraft Engineering technology requiring Starholds, Galactic Administration, and Ceramo-Metal Infrastructure. Like Habitats, they do not require Mega-Engineering.

They are treated as a variant of Starbases, and while system control is still primarily determined by the actual Starbase of the system, the planets they surround cannot be invaded until the Orbital Ring has been disabled.

Orbital Ring

Orbital Ring

Initially your Orbital Ring will have two module slots and no building slots. As you gain additional Starbase technologies (Star Fortress and Citadel) and improve the planet’s capital building you can upgrade the Orbital Ring through two additional tiers, adding one module and building slot at each tier.

Starbase screen for Orbital Ring

Most of the Orbital Ring modules are similar to Starbase modules. Defensive modules trade piracy protection for extra hull and armor, and the Habitation Module is a Ring specific module that adds a district slot to the planet below.

Habitation Module
Orbital Shipyard
Orbital Anchorage
Planetary Defense Guns
Planetary Defense Batteries
Planetary Defense Hangars

Systems with multiple habitable planets can become an exceptionally thorny obstacle if you build multiple defensive orbital rings supporting a bastion starbase at the center.

Having a large conveniently placed ring around your planet provides an opportunity to enhance the planet with some interesting buildings. These stack with similar planetside buildings.

Low Gravity Mega-Refiners
Stratospheric Ionization Elements
Climate Optimization Stations
The Giga-Mall

Synaptic Relays
Orbital Maintenance Drops

Orbital Filing System
Orbital Logistics Systems

Alloy Processing Facilities

Many standard starbase buildings can also be placed on an Orbital Ring - though some are now limited to one per system.

Orbital Rings fill the same “orbital slot” as habitats, so you’ll have to decide which of the two you want over your worlds, and they can only be built around colonized habitable planets.

Quantum Catapult​


There comes a time in every overlord’s reign when a faraway crisis suddenly requires your attention. Things are going on halfway across the galaxy, a rival in the way has closed borders to you, and the Galactic Community is debating something about Tiyanki. Again.

A true galactic overlord has to be able to project their power at will, and doesn’t let these little things stop them from enacting their plans.

Quantum Catapult Tech

Built around Neutron Stars or Pulsars, Quantum Catapults can hurl fleets across incredible distances of space, but these megastructures have accuracy issues over long distances.

Quantum Catapult


Quantum Catapult Fleet Order

The maximum range of a Quantum Catapult is significantly longer than jump drive range but there’s a risk the fleet may not land exactly where they intended. The further the launch, the wider the scatter radius.

Higher tiers of the Quantum Catapult are both more accurate and have longer maximum range, with a well-placed fully-constructed Catapult able to threaten virtually anywhere, even in a huge galaxy.

After selecting a desired target system, a short windup later your fleet will arrive somewhere in a nearby system, without any lingering jump debuffs... But there is a chance, especially on spiral maps, that this “nearby” system is quite a few jumps away from your intended destination when traveling the hyperlanes.

Using the Quantum Catapult
There’s no clear route to this system, but the Catapult doesn’t care.

Quantum Catapults also have a passive effect that reduces MIA time for your missing fleets, which comes in useful when moving reinforcements to the front line, using experimental subspace on your science ships, or if your launched fleet lands in a system with Closed Borders.

The Scholarium​


The Scholarium is the last of the Specialists coming in Overlord. Dedicated to the advancement of science, the Scholarium relies on their overlord to defend them from enemies.

The State of Saathuma are our Scholarium minions, bringing us the secrets of the universe in exchange for our benevolent protection.

Scholarium

As with the other specialist empires, the penalties and benefits both grow as they tier up.

Scholarium Specialization Tier 1
Scholarium Specialization Tier 2
Scholarium Specialization Tier 3

Where the Prospectorium could discover valuable deposits in their space, the Scholarium instead finds opportunities to learn.

Scholarium Sensors

Scholarium Discovery I
Scholarium Discovery II
Scholarium Discovery III

The advisor perk, as you likely expected, improves your overlord’s scientific research.
Scholarium Advisory

And like the others, they have a Hyper Relay Network effect at Tier 1.
Part of Scholarium Tutelage

Next week? Yeah, why not, let's show it next week.

At Tier 2, the Scholarium also gains a set of special traits for their leaders, and the ability to trade their Scientists to their overlord.

Scholarium Traits
Scholarium Scientists

Finally, at Tier 3 the Scholarium gains an advanced variant of the Science Ship, the Arctrellis. Like the Prospectorium’s Bulwark's Battlewright, it provides an aura in combat, but this time the scientists aboard the ship can cripple opposing ships piloted by AI - whether they be machine intelligences, sapient combat computers, or the Contingency.

Scholarium Arctrellis

It should be noted that as a Scholarium, the military penalties make it difficult to free yourself from under your overlord’s control. You may need some powerful friends to help you out.

Specialist Holdings​


Each of the Specialist empires has a unique holding that their overlord can build on their worlds.

Prospectoria can host the Offworld Foundry, which converts subject minerals into alloys for the overlord.

Offworld Foundry Holding

Bulwarks can have the Vigil Command, which grants additional Defense Platforms to their overlord. As the Bulwark increases in tier, these values increase.

Vigil Command Holding

Scholarium worlds can build the Ministry of Science. Surrounding their planet with additional Science Ships increases the effect of the building.

Ministry of Science Holding

One extra holding we’ll show this week is for the Tree of Life origin. It lets you share your blessings with your subjects, improving both the habitability and food production of your subject’s world, though a fair bit will be consumed by the sapling itself.

Tree of Life Sapling Holding
Overlord Arborist Job

Galactic Community​


It seemed natural that with such a large focus on subjugation, the Galactic Community would want to regulate things in different ways. Two more minor resolution lines are coming, in the new Suzerains and Sovereignty category.

Suzerains and Sovereignty Category

The Intergalactic Directives line of resolutions protects the rights of subjects and encourages the preservation and release of weaker societies.

Regulated Growth
Ensured Sovereignty
A Voice for All

You can’t take the sky from me.

Bureaucratic Surveillance, on the other hand, focuses more on the rights of the overlords, requiring a short leash on their subjects and encouraging the use of holdings. Resolutions in this line can only be proposed by empires that are overlords of another empire.

Administrative Insight
Borderless Authority
Personal Oversight

Borderless Authority and Personal Oversight force extra holdings into subject contracts, but since the total limit remains 4 the highest Holding Limit terms become redundant.

Teachers of the Shroud​


Teachers of the Shroud

With the Teachers of the Shroud origin, your civilization was identified as a civilization of interest long ago by the Shroudwalkers, and they carefully guided you as their visions instructed. Your species begins with the Latent Psionics trait and in contact with the Shroudwalker coven.

Your civilization is treated as if it already has the Mind over Matter Ascension Perk, meaning Transcendence is not far away. (And you cannot pursue Synthetic or Biological Ascension.)

Next Week​


Next week we’ll take a ride on the Hyper Relay Network, finally see those three Specialist perks, look at some other balance changes and additions coming in Cepheus and Overlord, and reveal another Origin.

Video versions of these dev diaries are available at the Stellaris Official YouTube Channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss them, and wishlist Overlord if you haven’t already!
 
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I'm wondering if the Orbital Ring should convey a small happiness penalty upon its planet. Think about it, how much would it suck when at 4:00 PM you lose an hour of daylight because your location is passing under the shadow of the orbital ring. Every day.

there are solution ... that we may actualy use with our world one day . for luck or lack of it , light is easy to reflect with all its proprety .
 
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I'm wondering if the Orbital Ring should convey a small happiness penalty upon its planet. Think about it, how much would it suck when at 4:00 PM you lose an hour of daylight because your location is passing under the shadow of the orbital ring. Every day.

Also, the Giga-Mall sounds hellish.

That assumes that the ring is sufficiently large/close to the planet that it can occlude the sun. If the band was in geocentric orbit of Earth it would need to be 250km thick to block out the sun.

Even if it was big I'm sure people living on the planet would get used to it. Especially those born there who don't know any different. Hell some pops that migrate to the planet might be from moons that get solar eclipses twice daily.
 
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there are solution ... that we may actualy use with our world one day . for luck or lack of it , light is easy to reflect with all its proprety .
That assumes that the ring is sufficiently large/close to the planet that it can occlude the sun. If the band was in geocentric orbit of Earth it would need to be 250km thick to block out the sun.

Even if it was big I'm sure people living on the planet would get used to it. Especially those born there who don't know any different. Hell some pops that migrate to the planet might be from moons that get solar eclipses twice daily.

Even the art itself shows a shadow. It's not night, but at least it lowers everything to a twilight-like ambience.

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That assumes that the ring is sufficiently large/close to the planet that it can occlude the sun. If the band was in geocentric orbit of Earth it would need to be 250km thick to block out the sun.
Not convinced that is accurate - but i might be wrong.
What distance for the orbital ring and what viewing angle were used for that estimation?
 
Not convinced that is accurate - but i might be wrong.
What distance for the orbital ring and what viewing angle were used for that estimation?

Geocentric orbit, right underneath it (double checking it would need to be closer to 300km thick)

That's not what it visually looks like sure, but stellaris graphics have never been to scale.
 
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The orbital rings look cool, but I feel like you're missing an excellent opportunity to finally give starbases the rebalance they so desparately need here (unless there's some stuff we haven't heard yet). Starbases still have issues with being militarily useless past the early game, and of limited economic utility to an empire. Also, with orbital rings now it feels like Ringworlds are especially lackluster in comparison to planets... perhaps they should automatically get a max-level orbital ring when built? Finally, I wonder if there could be consequences from "agressively de-orbiting" an orbital ring during warfare...

Indeed, once again the devs are "taking the piss" as the brits say when it comes to starbases and defensive possibilities. They actually had the gall to give these rings Defense guns, like ppl have been begging for forever, only to find out their just yet another stupid Stat Buff slot to bolster fleets that you have to leave sitting there because their the only things that can shoot back at enemies still that don't die in .0005 seconds. It's getting really irritating at this point.
 
Separate from all the diary-specific notes, it's notable that all of these updates, once again, seem set to reward Rogue Servitors as much or more than everyone else. Who gets the most value from scaling specialist production of any kind? The best specialists in the game. Who can get the tributaries to cover these costs? The best best early-game alloy economies in the game. Whose the best early-game science economy who can make the most of the Scholarium and Ring for an economy-tech bloom that will blot the skies? Who's getting an overlord building that boosts loyalty for better tributes but costs less than one pop of upkeep as a subsidy?



I'm almost afraid of what next week's balance patch is bringing for them to balance it all out.
 
Orbital Rings sound really fun, but I hope the devs have done their math so they don't turn out strictly inferior to building a Habitat, which provides pop growth and can be turned into a fortress to provide far more protection than puny starbase guns. Habitats should probably have their Influence cost increased.

Kinda disappointed with the Catapult - I was hoping the long-distance inaccurate gateway was the Hyper Relay Network and that the imposing looking megastructure was something more novel, like a stellar engine for actually moving systems around, or some kind of superweapon. With Jump Drives, Gateways, Wormholes and L-Gates already existing, we didn't really need more fast travel options, and especially not TWO new megastructures dedicated to it.
 
so they don't turn out strictly inferior to building a Habitat, which provides pop growth and can be turned into a fortress to provide far more protection than puny starbase guns
There are still plenty uninhabitable planets in most systems to build habitats on, so I think a combination of fortress habitats for FTL inhibition and orbital rings for defensive firepower would be the most optimal route.
 
actualy.. i tested that .. while its true that you need to spend tradition , ascension and its much better if you build the cordination center . a fortress with 60 DP L weapons will destroy 1 fleet of 23 battleship quite easy, while costing 2k alloys less overall and 2\3 of the fleet upkeep . the loses would be still less than the battleship would lose.

there is still the fact that you just need to send 2 fleet , and you can't build another bastion ... till now :p ..

the problem with the bastion is not the power , but the fact that they cost ALOT ( even if way less than the 2 fleets needed to destroy it without much loses) take alot of time to build, cost alot of resources to upgrade (the DP) .

but i will wait to see the balance change they are going to make.

i can already see some strange "+1 DP limit" on those pesky military modules , so i hope we will see some change on how theyr work . and hope there will be a re-researchable that increase the limit of DP , as the only real problem with scaling with the fleets is that a fleet can become bigger and bigger , but a bastion can't.

It's a catch-22 situation that ends up with the basic premise of: anything invested into defenses, could've gone to a mobile fleet instead. Stellaris doesn't natively support fixed defenses being stronger/cheaper at the expense of their mobility. Even deep investing, as you mention, is essentially trying to shore up a proposition that is, by default, already losing. Even the fact static defenses don't cost naval capacity is unmade by the hard limit to how much static defense you can make ... sooo the defenses have a limit, but N+1 fleets can be thrown at them.

The best defenses are basically planetary chokepoints with fortresses, because they completely ignore space combat and present an unignorable wall. You have to throw piles of minerals in the form of armies at the problem, so it's a binary situation. At least, until jump drives or colossus appear, which are the end-game "wipe out the opposition" technologies.

Honestly, either make defensive entrenchment viable, or just pave over them with automated defenses based on government policies/civics/etc. The pitiable state it exists in right now is just as a playstyle trap that promises a lot and delivers nothing. In any situation you'd have a bastion system, making fleets is 9 out of 10 times the better solution. The 1 time it's not is because you're so hilariously ahead of your opposition, it doesn't matter.
 
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Even the art itself shows a shadow. It's not night, but at least it lowers everything to a twilight-like ambience.

yes, but its nothing that some reflective surface could not fix . they actualy have to fix that , because that ring may actualy decrease the planet temeperature on the long run having significant effect over the years.
 
All holdings are empire unique. You can only have one of each, so choose wisely.
So wait, if I’m a rogue servitor, I can only pamper pops on one of my vassals planets? If I’m a franchise megacorp, I can only shape ethics on one of my vassal’s planets? Shared burdens has to pick one special planet to get their housing, instead of sharing it equally?

I really don’t think this restriction should apply to every holding.
 
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Too bad the teachers of the shroud bit is way too small. Wanted to know more about it and how the origin relates to the Shroudwalkers and the quest chain :(
 
It would be rather inconvenient if Bulwarks, the military vassal speciality, received fleet penalties.
Right my bad.

My point was that science is so powerful and naval capacity is a rather weak penalty as you can easily go over it by just paying more that there is no downside to be a scholarium vassal.
 
What happens to subject contracts that have "invalid" terms? Are they automatically renegotiated to exclude them or are they just considered a Breach of Galactic Law until you fix them? Likewise, can I subjugate my subjects more than the GC will tolerate if I become a rogue state?

The mercenary contract resolution chain had two additional steps for Federation owners (like vanilla ones do), do these two have the same, or do they cap out at 3?

I'm wondering if the Orbital Ring should convey a small happiness penalty upon its planet. Think about it, how much would it suck when at 4:00 PM you lose an hour of daylight because your location is passing under the shadow of the orbital ring. Every day.
You mean once a day I'm invited to look up to the skies and gaze in awe at the majesty of <species_name>, whose mastery of nature can blot out the very sun itself? Sign me up!
 
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i think you are missing the problem that the scholars have so much research bonuses ,that they could rival the overlord fleet power in 100 years even while having overall less naval capacity . they need to nerf theyr capacity to rival the overlord with tech , by destroying theyr capacity to have a "normal" fleet for theyr size .




actualy.. i tested that .. while its true that you need to spend tradition , ascension and its much better if you build the cordination center . a fortress with 60 DP L weapons will destroy 1 fleet of 23 battleship quite easy, while costing 2k alloys less overall and 2\3 of the fleet upkeep . the loses would be still less than the battleship would lose.

there is still the fact that you just need to send 2 fleet , and you can't build another bastion ... till now :p ..

the problem with the bastion is not the power , but the fact that they cost ALOT ( even if way less than the 2 fleets needed to destroy it without much loses) take alot of time to build, cost alot of resources to upgrade (the DP) .

but i will wait to see the balance change they are going to make.

i can already see some strange "+1 DP limit" on those pesky military modules , so i hope we will see some change on how theyr work . and hope there will be a re-researchable that increase the limit of DP , as the only real problem with scaling with the fleets is that a fleet can become bigger and bigger , but a bastion can't.
Don’t forget that the scholarium is paying a significant chunk of their research to their overlord. Likely 30% at minimum. Let’s imagine you make 1000 research, and your overlord only makes 800. You get a +40% bonus to your research, bringing you up to 1400. Then, you pay 30% to your overlord, bringing you down to either 1100 or 980, depending on how it’s calculated, and your overlord up to 1100 or 1220. They then get an extra 10% research speed on top of that from the scholarium advisory perk.

In order to out tech your overlord, you will need to have a ton more science than them, and even then you are just dragging them upwards as well. It’s still doable of course, but even then you will be ensuring that your overlord is #2 in tech, will full fleet power and possibly other vassals as well.


The answer to your specific question is you can only release sectors, and sectors automatically expand to their maximum. The only way to have a one-system sector release is if the adjacent sector naturally reaches to the limit.

The point to your balance consideration is separate, and you are correct that it's probably far too OP.
You can destroy outposts to isolate a single system as its own sector. The real reason you’d need to keep your one planet scholarium happy is that they need loyalty to level up.
 
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