Stellaris Dev Diary #279 / Stellaris Dog Diary #2 - 3.6.1, Holiday Beta, and More

[Eladrin]

So we won't be able to make alloys out of thin air anymore?

Correct, you'll need the barest minimum of resources rather than simply willing them into existence through the force of your cultural power.

 

[Eladrin]

Will Hrozgar emergency FTL if you ambush it with defense stations? Because then you'll have to employ a big armada like with every other Leviathan.
I do enjoy the cordyceptic ambush strategy though, I hope we get a different workaround that lets it better scale in power with game progression rather than removing the strategy altogether, smashing player cleverness for balance is bad game design; we want it balanced but we don't want to ruin the fun.

Hrozgar's primary issue is that since they're currently using a Maintain Distance artillery combat behavior, they don't get their twelve secondary weapons in range of the enemy.

 

[Caligula Caesar]

It’s possible that we will include a major rework to parts of galaxy generation (fixing many issues with static galaxies).

I figure I could clarify this. It's mainly a change that is relevant to modders and those who play mods. And yes, I can confirm that as things stand it will be in the beta - so I look forward to hearing feedback!

Basically, as things stand in Stellaris, there are two ways of generating a galaxy: using a random setup, or using a static galaxy. We only use the former, which means that it works more or less as we intend it (barring the occasional mishap). The latter however is interesting in particular to modders, because it lets you set up a particular scripted galaxy. For instance, you coukd create the milky way and put all the stars in the right place. Or you could replicate the galaxy of your favourite sci fi IP.

The problem with static galaxies is basically that as it stands the code that the game uses to generate the galaxy - and specifically the elements of empires within it - is completely different. Which means that whenever we fix a bug or change something in the random galaxy generation, we have to hope that someone remembers that the same has to apply to static galaxies. Unfortunately, quite a few bugs crept in.

The better way to do this is to share the code, or at least as much of it as possible. Which is what we will be doing now. (Hopefully, nothing about normal galaxy generation was broken - we don't think so, but that's why it's good to put this in a beta).

For modders, the rough change list would be:
- Fixed a number of bugs where empires were not set up properly for static galaxies. E.g. they were not given starbases, and secondary species were ignored.
- Various galaxy generation and game start on_actions are now called during static galaxy generation as they would be normally.
- Added an "effect = {}" field for static galaxy systems that will execute on that system after the galaxy is generated
- Added an example documentation file

For players, if you enjoy mods that do this sort of thing, hopefully this will allow a smoother and better starting experience.