Stellaris Dev Diary #273 - A Peek into the Future

[Lorcogoth]

so small question, is there any plan to add a little something to the "Common Ground" Origin that uniquely allows you to integrate/Merge with your two starting allies?
I have tried it a few times now and even though it's loads more fun with the new addition in the beta it just feels really clunky and annoying in the early to mid game when you need to race your allies for any type of planet.... or habitable rock.

 

[workbot]

Hoorah, cyborgs!

 

[DarkSafire]

After playing beta for a bit and seeing new Politics (imo something like Sovereignty sound better) traditions tree, i got this random idea: what if we could send envoys as spies to GC if you are not joined? You could see who is voting for what and why if you have high enough intel level on them.

You could also "ghost vote", it would have no impact on result, but if you have vassals in GC they would vote for than option. You could also negotiate with other empire to vote certain way.

Combine Politics (with thematic swap) and Subterfuge and you could puppet master GC into pointless filibusters (like prevening nomination of Galactic Custodian or declaring you as crisis, etc.) as you dominate the galaxy.

 

[MayoiSnail]

I don't understand the reasoning for giving Whispers in the Void a unity penalty. It's currently significantly underpowered, so why does it need a new penalty to go along with its buff?

 

[Fyren85]

When does the beta end? I thought it would be till the end of october?

 

[Ikael]

Cool little things! Glad to hear about whisperers having lower stability penalties, I hope that the eater of worlds covenant would see a similar revision. Or at the very least, make its penalty a gradual increase when at peace, a la reverse war weariness. Also, damn, that Unbidden arc defense field sounds scary!

 

[cryptkeeper]

so small question, is there any plan to add a little something to the "Common Ground" Origin that uniquely allows you to integrate/Merge with your two starting allies?
I have tried it a few times now and even though it's loads more fun with the new addition in the beta it just feels really clunky and annoying in the early to mid game when you need to race your allies for any type of planet.... or habitable rock.

I think they should find some way of spacing them out, and having some special space lane between the home planets making it unique But also giving each some room to expand. Though that may be a lot of work considering their random generation.

 

[Arutar]

Can we expect changes to dipolmacy / vassalization in the beta?

As stated in the Beta feedback threads, currently the AI is all to happy to voluntarily become a vassal of basically any non-hostile empire which is (even only temporarily) noticeably stronger than it.

 

[HFY]

@Alfray Stryke - congrats on transitioning to Designer.

Who is going to replace you as QA?

 

[LystAP]

Work in Progress UI Art for the Holy Covenant Federation​

So out of curiosity, does this mean we can Consecrate the segments of a ringworld to have a holy/sacred ring?

I believe currently, artificial constructs do not trigger the Holy World effect.

 

[SirBlackAxe]

When exactly should we post in the beta feedback threads?

According to the rules we only get a single post in each so I've been holding all my thoughts, but I'm starting to get concerned I'll miss the opportunity to respond and also I'm not sure that rule is being respected or enforced so maybe it's not really a rule?

---

It would be good for balance if you had a chance to look at trading favors to the AI for obscene rewards early game.
Personally I'd vote for just removing this option, it is too exploitable.

I'd propose starting with something like this:

• AI should value your favors based on your relative diplomatic weight to them.
  • It would be nice if it also took into account how likely it though you were to vote against it on a resolution it cares enough about to use favors on, but that's probably hard to model.
• If you're both members of the galactic community, you can trade favors to and from AI.
• If you're both members of the same federation, you can trade for favors from the AI.
  • If it's possible for AI to use favors to influence your federation votes this should also let you trade favors to same fed AI, but I'm not sure whether or not AI empires are able to do this.
• If you've adopted the Diplomacy tradition (and possibly also if you have positive relations or meet a certain trust threshold) you can trade for favors from the AI, in order to get it to accept agreements and forming a federation, but this doesn't allow you to trade favors to AI since it can't use them on you in the same way.

 

[Dr. B]

When exactly should we post in the beta feedback threads?

According to the rules we only get a single post in each so I've been holding all my thoughts, but I'm starting to get concerned I'll miss the opportunity to respond and also I'm not sure that rule is being respected or enforced so maybe it's not really a rule?

---

I'd propose starting with something like this:

• AI should value your favors based on your relative diplomatic weight to them.
  • It would be nice if it also took into account how likely it though you were to vote against it on a resolution it cares enough about to use favors on, but that's probably hard to model.
• If you're both members of the galactic community, you can trade favors to and from AI.
• If you're both members of the same federation, you can trade for favors from the AI.
  • If it's possible for AI to use favors to influence your federation votes this should also let you trade favors to same fed AI, but I'm not sure whether or not AI empires are able to do this.
• If you've adopted the Diplomacy tradition (and possibly also if you have positive relations or meet a certain trust threshold) you can trade for favors from the AI, in order to get it to accept agreements and forming a federation, but this doesn't allow you to trade favors to AI since it can't use them on you in the same way.

Also:
-No trading favors before the Galactic Community is formed.

Simple fix, no more early game exploit.

 

[Lorenerd11]

Also:
-No trading favors before the Galactic Community is formed.

Simple fix, no more early game exploit.

I was about to suggest this, but the problem is that favors can also be used in diplomacy view or in Federation votes.

 

[Dr Pippy]

• The Integrated Preservation tradition for Machine Intelligences now affects Evaluators (and Chronicle Drones) not Coordinators.

I'm afraid I really don't understand this one. Currently Machines have a pretty tough time dealing with Deviancy, since (1) the Sentinel Posts aren't upgradable, so you can only get -40 deviancy per building slot, and (2) machine pops don't have happiness, so you can't avoid the 1 deviancy per pop. Being able to use coordinators as a substitute for the hunter drones on your unity worlds was a nice (and thematically appropriate) option; since you can only have 6 evaluators, it doesn't seem like this will be possible any more.

Hopefully there are other changes in the works that will offset the effect of this; otherwise, it seems like a relatively minor but annoying and unnecessary nerf.

 

[Wendigo514]

So out of curiosity, does this mean we can Consecrate the segments of a ringworld to have a holy/sacred ring?
View attachment 896607
I believe currently, artificial constructs do not trigger the Holy World effect.
View attachment 896610

About this, I think Shrouded Worlds should get at least the treatment Toxic Worlds get with KotTG, without having breached the Shroud, and after that being always considered Holy Worlds.

 

[Lorenerd11]

I'm afraid I really don't understand this one. Currently Machines have a pretty tough time dealing with Deviancy, since (1) the Sentinel Posts aren't upgradable, so you can only get -40 deviancy per building slot, and (2) machine pops don't have happiness, so you can't avoid the 1 deviancy per pop. Being able to use coordinators as a substitute for the hunter drones on your unity worlds was a nice (and thematically appropriate) option; since you can only have 6 evaluators, it doesn't seem like this will be possible any more.

Admittedly, it will now be a lot better for Rogue Servitors with an Ecumenopolis, who can now use the 9 Evaluators from Simulation Complex and Ministry of Culture to keep Deviancy down on their capital.

That said, Sentinel Posts should definitely be upgradeable.

 

[SirBlackAxe]

Also:
-No trading favors before the Galactic Community is formed.

Simple fix, no more early game exploit.

As @Lorenerd11 mentioned, buying favors can be important for rushing an early federation before the community forms. That's why I suggested not being able to sell them unless you're both galactic community members, but offered some other conditions under which you could buy them.

 

[Lorenerd11]

As @Lorenerd11 mentioned, buying favors can be important for rushing an early federation before the community forms. That's why I suggested not being able to sell them unless you're both galactic community members, but offered some other conditions under which you could buy them.

Yeah, either disable selling favors to AI empires, or alternatively, allow the AI to use favors to establish pacts with us where we would instead only receive an offer.

So, for instance, if we owe the AI say, 5 favors, the AI could then use those favors to form a non-aggression pact with us, or a research agreement beneficial to them, without us being able to decline.

Pacts established this way would be impossible to break off for 5 years (actually, maybe that should be a rule in general, forming a pact and immediately breaking it shouldn't be a thing).

It should also use favors in the Galactic Community just as we can to boost the vote in its favor.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Answering a few questions before I go make dinner:

Forgive me if this is actually extremely difficult for you to deal with, but will the Totalitarian faction issues with assimilation be fixed in the upcoming update?

It's making it somewhat problematic to make use of ascensions as an Authoritarian in a way that doesn't really make sense.

This is on my radar to look into.

And speaking of UI, would you consider expanding the Federation icon to include federation cohesion, as well as add an Agreements icon that shows your subject type (or overlord status) and displays your loyalty (or the loyalty of your subjects)?

View attachment 896460 View attachment 896461

It would be a real help with managing federations and subjects.

I'll suggest this to our UX team as it's a good idea, but I can't promise anything.

Is the amount of pop assembly increased from the base spawning pool?

The tradition grants Spawning Pools (and Offspring Nests for Progenitors) two Augmentation Drone jobs, which provide 1.50 cyborg assembly per month at the cost of 1 alloy each.

What does voidling do?

It's a trait gained via Genetic Ascension and harvesting genetic material from the Voidspawn. The effects are:

• Replaces Food or Mineral upkeep with Energy Upkeep.
• Habitability Floor on all planets of 20%.

@Alfray Stryke - congrats on transitioning to Designer.

Who is going to replace you as QA?

Thank you! I've been a member of the design team since around the release of Overlord, so we've had new QA join since then.

When exactly should we post in the beta feedback threads?

According to the rules we only get a single post in each so I've been holding all my thoughts, but I'm starting to get concerned I'll miss the opportunity to respond and also I'm not sure that rule is being respected or enforced so maybe it's not really a rule?

I'm happy with folks posting their thoughts and feedback and then posting further feedback if the beta is updated again. Rest assured we are reading every post in those threads.

I'm afraid I really don't understand this one. Currently Machines have a pretty tough time dealing with Deviancy, since (1) the Sentinel Posts aren't upgradable, so you can only get -40 deviancy per building slot, and (2) machine pops don't have happiness, so you can't avoid the 1 deviancy per pop. Being able to use coordinators as a substitute for the hunter drones on your unity worlds was a nice (and thematically appropriate) option; since you can only have 6 evaluators, it doesn't seem like this will be possible any more.

Hopefully there are other changes in the works that will offset the effect of this; otherwise, it seems like a relatively minor but annoying and unnecessary nerf.

As noted, this should help Rogue Servitors who can't access to Coordinator jobs, but we also made the Evaluator drones provide a higher Deviancy reduction with this tradition than Coordinators did.

About this, I think Shrouded Worlds should get at least the treatment Toxic Worlds get with KotTG, without having breached the Shroud, and after that being always considered Holy Worlds.

I'd like us to give another pass on how the "holiness" of a Holy World is decided, including making Tomb and Relic Worlds be more valuable to consecrate for Memorialist empires. Maybe one day...

 

[HFY]

Thank you! I've been a member of the design team since around the release of Overlord, so we've had new QA join since then.

You're still officially on the hook until we have a name.

So throw that new hire right into the fire.