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Stellaris Dev Diary #263 - Announcing Toxoids

Hello everyone!

Today we’re announcing our next Species Pack that will be released alongside the 3.5 “Fornax” update, the Toxoids!

Whether you burn the future for the benefit of today or scavenge the past, Toxoids are survivors. Toxoids gives you the chance to gamble the future of your planets for immediate gains, and make the tough sacrifices necessary to survive a hostile galaxy.

Pre-Order the Toxoids Species Pack today!


The Toxoids Species Pack will be bubbling over with things such as:
  • New Origins:
    • Knights of the Toxic God: In the depths of your homeworld, rumors rumble of a true power buried under the toxic sludge. Do you dare to dredge up the secrets of your past - and potentially unleash them upon the galaxy?
    • Overtuned: The candle that burns the brightest, burns itself into the galaxy’s memory! Play as a species that can gain more and more traits at the cost of its own lifespan, and live for today without worrying about sticking around for tomorrow!
  • New Civics:
    • Toxic Baths: Grow your population fast with a fresh infusion of mutagenic sludge - so long as you’re willing to tolerate the costs to your planet and your people!
    • Scavengers: One empire’s trash is your empire’s treasure! Don’t be too proud to harvest debris and destruction for quick construction projects of your own.
    • Relentless Industrialists: If you’re going to keep up with demand, you’re going to have to learn to ignore all of those petty regulations and negative opinions. The surviving population will thank you for all of the resources you gain!
  • New Traits:
    • Incubator: Repopulate quickly when your planet is empty, but those growth facilities can fill up fast!
    • Inorganic Breath: Your own people are a source of valuable exotic gasses! It’s a shame the respirators are so expensive.
    • Noxious: Other species can’t stand being around you, and it seems like your mere existence is making your planets awful places to live. On the other hand, other empires have a very difficult time wanting to fight or subjugate you, and it’s hilarious to see the look on their faces when you’re in the room!
    • Exotic Metabolism: You’ve adapted to ask “are you going to eat that?” where other species would be calling the hazmat team. Eat faster, live longer, and enjoy a terrifying rainbow of flavors!
  • New Cosmetics: Species portraits, ship models, and cityscapes that only a mother could love.
  • New Advisor: Grow your empire alongside a relentless source of noxious sarcasm!

The Toxoids Species Pack and the Stellaris 3.5 “Fornax” update will be released on September 20, 2022, and will be playable at PDXCon this Friday and Saturday at Münchenbryggeriet here in Stockholm.

We’ll be moving to a rapid dev diary release schedule for the next few weeks as we attempt to cover everything that’s in the Toxoids Species Pack. We’ll see you next Tuesday with the next Stellaris Dev Diary.

Toxoid Ships


Pre-Order the Toxoids Species Pack today!
 
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hmmm interesting.

Though, this will probably be the first species pack I won't purchase. I don't think it's badly done, and the origins/civics sound fun. The ships and buildings also look great.
But the designs are a bit too repulsive/disgusting for me (as in purposefully ugly, not bad designs) I mean the second portrait in the steam screenshot that shows all the portraits looks like it's straight out of W40k. Ew....

Though glad for everyone who likes them.
 
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    • Relentless Industrialists: If you’re going to keep up with demand, you’re going to have to learn to ignore all of those petty regulations and negative opinions. The surviving population will thank you for all of the resources you gain!
  • Exotic Metabolism: You’ve adapted to ask “are you going to eat that?” where other species would be calling the hazmat team. Eat faster, live longer, and enjoy a terrifying rainbow of flavors!
Finally, we can properly play with the British Empire.
 
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Placeholder Species Pack when?
Oh yeah, starring such classics as:
- Humanoid Blank Face
- Humanoid in shadow
- Shrouded cloak with what may or may not be shadow tentacles coming out of it
- Enigmatic cigarrete smoking human
- Glowing red eyes in the dark
- Vague blurr
 
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fat-captain-planet.jpg


Seriously though, I love the idea of a trade-off between short-term gains and longer-term ecological sustainability (in a less extreme form than Terravores).
I'd like that as a base game mechanic tbh. It feels like covering your planets with alloy factories should have some consequences, and conversely it would nice to play an empire who tries to keep things nice on purpose.
 
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Overtuned seems like the biological equivalent of Mechanists and Teachers of the Shroud that I've been waiting for. Good to see some bio-ascension love.

I'm glad that I'll have that, since it's looking like I won't get to play with the added civics as a Megacorp :(
 
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This is the first species pack that's just not caught my eye in any way.

There's nothing wrong with it... It just feels very memey rather than something that fits into the universe and I'm really not sure I'd trust the AI to deal with it.

I suppose that it was inevitable that I wouldn't like every species pack.

Nice job on the art design though, even if it isn't for me.
 
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Sweet, my dreams of running a dystopian megacorp fantasy that kills the planet with toxic waste is almost here. I really hope there's some interactions with toxic worlds with this species pack. Uninhabitable worlds like toxic, barren, frozen, molten and gas giants feel like they have a lot of potential that isn't utilized unless you get lucky with a deposit or terraforming candidate.

Otherwise, I really dig the ship aesthetics. Good to see Biological ascension getting some love. Feels like these species pack dlcs get a little bit bigger with every new release which is really cool.
 
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I look forward to bringing toxicity to a new level (in Stellaris)!

My species' LD 50 will be less than one conversation!

So many potential builds to try out!
  • Noxious w/ Inward Perfection
  • Overtuned w/ Synthetic Leaders
  • Exotic Metabolism w/ Toxic Colossus
  • Clone Soldiers w/ Incubator (?)
  • Budding w/ Incubator (?)
I'm loving the vibes. And the portrait and ship set look very sweet in a rather caustic way.
 
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Each and every Stellaris player in the forums: "give us energy beings, organic shipsets and eldritch alien portraits".

Paradox: "oh, so you want aliens able to survive in toxic worlds? done!"

Also:
I was not expecting this, but I love it!

Now all we need are energy beings and a Lovecraftian Eldritch Species Pack and we can cool it with the Species Packs!
Exactly. We are all expecting for that since the Big Bang! So, Paradox, when you will finally hear us?

Regarding Knights of the Toxic God.
Might this interact with the psionic ascension?
As in, does the Shroud have a god of decay, change, rebirth, etc? Is the God jolly?
I sure hope so.(wink, nudge)

"Nudge"?! You meant "Nurgle", right? :D
 
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Already pre-purchased. I love it.

Portraits: Awesome. (I can think of ton of empire concepts for them already.)

Shipset: Great! (Industrial/scavenger look I've been wanting since the start)

Origin/Civics/Traits: Need to seem them in action but they look pretty cool.

Species packs are always a treat.
Now you mentioned that (scavengers), these ships really looked familiar! They all look like the kind of ship that you could expect to be used by the Eliksni/Fallen.
 
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First, I'm excited for the species pack. More variety in the galaxy is always welcomed and the Stellaris team is the only one where the idea of "DLC pays for continued support" is clearly exemplified by the custodian team.

Also, and only because it makes me happy, in my head the Stellaris team came up with the theme for this pack by distilling the dumpster fire that is the CK3 sub-forum.
 
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