• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #266 - Rise a Knight!

Greetings squires!

Mr. Cosmogone here, on behalf of the Lord Commander Eladrin who gave me his blessing to tell you more about the mysterious Knights of the Toxic God.

image6.png

“Pledge thy Life to Realm and Quest”

The Origin is content oriented, but it does come with some unique mechanics to support the narrative and put you in charge of an empire dedicated to a quest.

Starting with your Homeworld, which still bears the scars of the passage of the Toxic God in the form of five unique blockers:

image7.png

I hope you brought your swimsuit!

As the quest progresses, you might get a chance to upgrade these into powerful assets, but at the beginning of the game, they will be a thorn in your side, reducing the number districts you can build on your homeworld.

Fear not however, for the Order has built you a brand new habitat to serve as your springboard to galactic dominance!

The habitat comes with several unique features, including an imposing building:

image5.png

“No fearsome Foe nor Vastness black,
No moat or wild shall hold thee back.”

Knights are expensive specialists who will provide you with quest progress, and increasingly powerful boons as time goes on, while the Lord Commander is a ruler stratum job which is basically a super knight.

Both of these jobs are supported by Squires, who mainly come from the habitat’s unique districts:

image1.png

“Let Faith and Honor be thy Guide,
To Chivalry and Oath abide.”

All of this is done in service of the Quest, a unique situation which will slowly progress towards, well towards something.. Well, actually, multiple somethings which will be up to you to discover.

Let’s just say that it’s going to take a while, and cost you a considerable amount of money and alloys.

image3.png

1819 months is about 150 years, but there are ways to speed up the quest.

The Quest, the Knights and the Order will definitely put some stress on your economy in the early game, but having the elite of your nation ready to serve also comes with a few benefits, like the Knightly Duties policy:

image2.png

“Now raise thy Sword, take up the Fight”

And while your start will be rougher than most, should you overcome the challenges thrown your way, you will find that the knights can prove very valuable. That’s all for today, I’ll leave you with a peek at a late game habitat setup that occurred during one of our playtest, with only a little bit of minmaxing involved:

image4.png

“Swear thy Vow, and Rise a Knight!”

What's Next?

Is it time already? This Thursday we'll have @PDX-Loke providing the Patch Notes for the Toxoids Species Pack and the Stellaris 3.5 "Fornax" update!

See you then!
 
  • 72Like
  • 29Love
  • 13
  • 3
  • 2
Reactions:
Could you provide numberic context, please?

I don't believe the wiki breaks down the planet spawn %, so 'extremely common' is very vague and would depend on how the categories are structured.
Just eyeballing it from playing the game for 5000+ hours, there seems to be at least one toxic world in practically every system that has planets at all. Or at least every system that has several planets. It actually makes me wonder if every toxic world is going to be terraformable, or just "toxic terraforming candidates". If it's every toxic world, it's going to be a very strong AP.
 
Can't wait!
 
It actually makes me wonder if every toxic world is going to be terraformable, or just "toxic terraforming candidates". If it's every toxic world, it's going to be a very strong AP.
Just the ones with a special "terraforming candidate" modifier. They also said in a stream that toxic worlds can be bigger than habitable planets (size 25+), but those planets will never be terraforming candidates.
 
  • 2
  • 2
Reactions:
That's a shame. Ring worlds and ecumenopoleis represent roughly 4 and 2 planets worth of extra pop space each, respectively, and the former can be built in roughly the same percentage of systems that have toxic worlds. With that in mind, I'm fairly certain it would be fine to just declare open season on all toxic worlds, as long as the cost and time to properly terraform is high enough.

Maybe they just preferred to restrict the number of candidates and make it extremely cheap instead.
 
Hmmm. Can Rogue Servitors be Knights?

Also, Kingdom of Heaven was the first movie I ever watched in a Lay-Z-Boy equipped cinema. "This is your oath. *slap* And that is so that you remember it"
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
A toxic entity!!!

I wonder if that entity, if she's the same that starred in a certain Marvel movie. You know, Captain Something, or was it Super Marvel or someting like that.
 
  • 7
Reactions:
I can be machines?
Gestalts (& genocidals) are barred from knighthood.


About the Origin:
The only critique I have is that you have no interactions with other Knights of the Toxic God, a what I think is a missed opportunity for some events my questing knights could cause in empires neighbouring me (good & bad events)
and what I think would have been a nice addition is a "former Knight"-trait for leaders that, like latent psionic, only appears on a few of your leaders with a specific bonus for each leader class.
 
Last edited:
  • 2
Reactions:
This feel very weird. Interesting, but weird.

It all seems very… specific? I'm not sure if it's inspired by something, but there's a very predetermined theme to all of this that is somewhat unusual for origins. It's got unique jobs and everything, but it just makes me wonder why a civilization that had their homeworld devastated by a toxic colossus must necessarily be a knightly order, and why we can't play as a knightly order otherwise?
I'm sure this is a test run. :3
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
The artwork for the origin seems oddly clean. Not the tile blockers, but the district icon and the artwork showing knights in fine armor while someone is knighted with an energy sword. I hope the events and quests have more toxic themed descriptions and pictures. I feel some tonal confusion between this glamourous knight aesthetic and the worship of nurgle.
Actually I wish they made this kinghtly order playstyle completely separate from the toxic fluff, it’s interesting enough to stand on its own
 
  • 5
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Just eyeballing it from playing the game for 5000+ hours, there seems to be at least one toxic world in practically every system that has planets at all. Or at least every system that has several planets. It actually makes me wonder if every toxic world is going to be terraformable, or just "toxic terraforming candidates". If it's every toxic world, it's going to be a very strong AP.
I for one am pretty excited by the idea of getting to terraform Venus, if we do get to terraform any toxic world.
 
For me this whole funny-toxic topic does not really fit to the game (actually the "funny" is the more problematic part of it) - but let it roll, as Frederick the Great
stated "den hier mus ein jeder nach seiner Fasson Selich werde" (Each must live as he sees fit.)

Actually I wish they made this kinghtly order playstyle completely separate from the toxic fluff, it’s interesting enough to stand on its own

This!
 
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
That's a shame. Ring worlds and ecumenopoleis represent roughly 4 and 2 planets worth of extra pop space each, respectively, and the former can be built in roughly the same percentage of systems that have toxic worlds. With that in mind, I'm fairly certain it would be fine to just declare open season on all toxic worlds, as long as the cost and time to properly terraform is high enough.

Maybe they just preferred to restrict the number of candidates and make it extremely cheap instead.

Our development version AI with the detox Ascension Perk (with no Terraforming Candidate Restriction), and 200+ planets would like to know your location.
 
  • 5Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Some people speak about "Knights without toxic god". Maybe boring "Warrior culture" civic needs rework. If devs give for civic special structure, that provides lords, knights, squires, special district and holding, with expensive upkeep and without habitat and quest, it will be fine and cool.
 
  • 3Like
  • 2
  • 1
Reactions:
This looks cool and all.
But.

This origin will completely die for me if the toxic god is a stupid colossus.
Especially because either you get the colossus way early and it needs a bunch of mechanical nerfs like the grand herald or you get it so late you should have just built the colossus for the cb already.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions: