Stellaris Dev Diary #282 - Announcing First Contact

[SS Boss]

The antagonist of both Broken Shackes and Payback is called Minamar Specialized Industries -- and unlike you, I see nothing wrong about having a non-random empire as my enemy. By the contrary, I hate the fact I cannot customize the homeworld of my species in Lost Colony, the members of my federation in the Common Ground Origin, my vassals in the Hegemonic Origin, my benefactors in the Scion Origin or my overlord in the Imperial Fiefdom Origin. Why? It's because I want a full customizable galaxy, where I can tell my very own stories.

If the "story" empire is customizable I have no problem at all, I think its the ideal solution, the problem is if its not customizable, then I prefer a generic one.

 

[Metallichydra]

Is that a picture of primitives giving gifts to a robot?

 

[Ezumiyr]

I hope cloaking means increased tactics and not just scouts. Scouts would defeat the point of Espionnage almost entirely.

 

[Primarch Victus]

The logo font looks really nice, for those who are interested it is Exarros.

Thanks for the info!

 

[namewhichisnottakenyet]

^
I found the obligatory Tofu picture!

 

[Mipedian Associate]

And that raises the question, will default 1x primitive setting be buffed to have more primitives?
I too play with a higher setting because 1x is terrible, way too rare; almost a missing feature.

Does it differ between console and pc

 

[Me_]

Cool to see some more of the old brainstormed origins show up. I wish I remember where the list was posted.

 

[Rafss]

Does it differ between console and pc

I have no idea, sorry :/ I would guess it is probably the same, tied to galaxy size.

Now reading the post again, it seems Minamar Specialized Industries is a very specific empire that spawns and is related to those origins.
My other questions then would be:
Is it a megacorp fallen empire? Like if you had an evil Scion origin?
Or is it "evil" fiefdom origin where you have to face a regular empire, simply more advanced? I don't remember if Lost Colony already has that kind of background, I never pick it up.
Or is it like Marauder enclaves with a small three system empire, or Caravaneers with Chor's Compass?
So many questions!

 

[charm3d47]

Is it too much for me to hope that at least the Payback origin if maybe not the Broken Chains one will work with gestalt consciousness empires? I tend to enjoy those more than normal empires. Either way, this all sounds very fun and I'm super excited to try both of those out!

 

[A2ch0n]

Question: Will we get cloaked espionage ships with a kind of sabotage/disruption mechanic?

Thinking about "Hegemonia: Legions of Iron" style espionage ships. Maybe asign an envoy to them.

That would be awesome!

 

[LookingGlass]

The antagonist of both Broken Shackes and Payback is called Minamar Specialized Industries -- and unlike you, I see nothing wrong about having a non-random empire as my enemy. By the contrary, I hate the fact I cannot customize the homeworld of my species in Lost Colony, the members of my federation in the Common Ground Origin, my vassals in the Hegemonic Origin, my benefactors in the Scion Origin or my overlord in the Imperial Fiefdom Origin. Why? It's because I want a full customizable galaxy, where I can tell my very own stories.

So you like that the two new origins have a non-random enemy empire, but you hate the Imperial Fiefdom origin for having a non-random overlord empire?

I'm definitely in the camp of not caring for these hyper specific origins. It really makes every galaxy feel samey and hurts roleplay. Being able to customize this enemy empire would be great, but randomized (at least to a degree, if it needs to fulfill a certain role like "authoritarian MegaCorp" or so that's fine, like Fallen Empires).

I can't help but wonder if origins are really the best system for these types of story-heavy gameplay ideas. Why not just go all-in and start adding campaigns proper?

 

[Jean-Luc]

Love this design.

 

[Ethan Blondie]

(bird of Pray noses) LETS GO KALLIS ITS CLOCKING TIME!!!

 

[Losttruppen]

I see nothing wrong about having a non-random empire as my enemy.

It wouldn't hurt to have a few different flavours though if we can't design them ourselves.

That ship in the Trailer makes me think of a Habitat, I would be interested to see a Resort or Penal World variety of Habitat you can put over neutral/primitive and hostile planets with tourist or abduction growth slots or a Science/Unity Purge. Edit: it looks like it is a Habitat based on the first picture on the Steam page.

 

[LystAP]

If there are more interactions with Primitives, would Xenophiles have the option of trying to save the survivors of the aftermath of a nuclear war? Similarly, would primitive civilizations have the possibility of surviving a nuclear war and end up with the Survivor trait of a Post-Apocalyptic Origin?

 

[Bloodbat]

Do custom empires have a chance of spawning as primitive civilizations like they can as Fallen Empires? If not, it would be cool if they could.

 

[DarkSafire]

Can't wait to buy this new DLC only to just invade and enslave every primitive civilization i come across without bothering to interact with all new fancy stuff.

On other hand cloaking does pique my interest. Good job as usual Stellaris team.

 

[InvisibleBison]

Looks like I'm the only person who's not excited about cloaking. I think cloaking has the same problem as espionage, in that if it's effective enough to worth using it will be intolerable to have the AI use it against you. But mayhap I'm being overly pessimistic.

 

[Korp]

Looks like I'm the only person who's not excited about cloaking. I think cloaking has the same problem as espionage, in that if it's effective enough to worth using it will be intolerable to have the AI use it against you. But mayhap I'm being overly pessimistic.

Well, I am not certain how it should work against normal empires, but I can definitely see why cloaking would be needed to keep primitives unaware of your activities.

 

[Losttruppen]

Looks like I'm the only person who's not excited about cloaking. I think cloaking has the same problem as espionage, in that if it's effective enough to worth using it will be intolerable to have the AI use it against you. But mayhap I'm being overly pessimistic.

I can see it as a way to increase the viability of the smaller ship classes in the late game, either spoofing your fleet if you can mix it with the big ships in order to hide their real Fleet value or as flanking fleets to harass their back line or bait them into an engagement.

I imagine it would just mitigate some of the late game omniscience from Sensor techs and Intel gathering for the smaller ships; I can't see it winning wars on its own or doing much during peacetime aside from altering your relative power calculations(which small ships would probably not affect much, unless you are playing on the smaller maps). If your entire fleet consists only of cloaked small ships you will still need to engage the enemy if you want to win wars, which I can't see small ships doing alone. Then again Frigates and the Torpedo changes make this a(n expensive)possibility, even against big late game fleets.