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Stellaris Dev Diary #286 - Fear and Archaeotechs in First Contact

Hello everyone! I am PDS_Iggy, and I’m here to tell you all about Fear of the Dark!

This new narrative origin for First Contact focuses on a people divided. After a planet in your solar system blew up, fear and xenophobia spread to such a degree that a large portion of your population decided to flee your homeworld. Their goal? To hide from the rest of the galaxy.


Incoming Transmission:​

You mean, “The sane individuals of our species took the only prudent action possible when being attacked by an alien force capable of destroying planets!
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This split in your population is reflected in the effects of the origin. With a sizable section of your empire living on a neighboring world, your research alternatives and choices for leaders are reduced. Yet, even more inquisitive than a regular empire, you will have no difficulty discovering more anomalies as you explore the void.

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No doubt you’ll return from your galavantings the next time we reach a breakthrough! Our scientific research is one of the few way we can even hope to delay you from dooming us all. Once you lead the aliens back to our home, it will all be over.

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Additionally,Fear of the Dark starts with quite a unique system, one that will have you starting with binary planets - your ‘cousins’ are living just a rocket jump away. (a Sol start will have them placed on Mars).

It will be up to you to make the best of this situation. Your partner planet can be a powerful ally, yet they are also very skittish. Ensure that they don’t torpedo your entrance on the galactic stage.

Perhaps you will stop treating the alien threat so lightly when our upcoming study of ‘the Divider’ is finished. Just you wait. We won’t be hunted.



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Whatever happens, remember that you are one people and you are stronger together. Oh, and your partner planet has cloaked ships.


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Now off to MrCosmogone and his wondrous archaeo-technologies for this patch's custodian update!



Did you ever think, as you pass by an old laser cannon in a glass case, that not everything belongs in a museum? That perhaps, the Irassian tractor beam could be used for your cause instead of gathering dust?

Well, so do I. And if you own Ancient Relics, I have good news!

Excavated dig sites will now sometimes generate minor artifact deposits that can be exploited by orbital stations, or by colonizing the planet.

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There could always be more trinkets to find!

Your income in minor artifacts can then be put to good use with the new archaeo-technologies that will unlock buildings, starbase modules and ship components, all costing minor artifacts to build.
There are several ways to acquire these archaeo-technologies. Completing the Secrets of the [PRECURSOR] special projects will now give you a research option to unlock some unique archaeo-components:
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The power of a precursor in the palm of your hand.

Several of our dig sites can now grant you access to one of the new technologies. This is a very reliable way of acquiring them.

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Get to work, Oxygal, I want this research on my desk by the end of the week!

All these new technologies are found in the society field, in an all new “Archaeostudies” category which is all about fitting ancient tech into your machines and weapons. Discovering these archaeo-technologies by yourself is a long and hard process, but luckily, you can be assisted by dedicated researchers who share your interest in ancient things.

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They largely just make old things go boom.

Should you decide to pick the Remnants origin that starts you on a relic world, you will now start the game with the Faculty of Archaeostudies unlocked and replacing your starting research lab.

And if this still does not quench your thirst for specialization in archaeo-technologies, if you still want to dig deeper, we even have a new ascension perk for you!

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For all you history lovers!



With increased minor artifact generation, the scale of the existing economy needed to be increased, but we also took this opportunity to now display artifacts in the topbar alongside the other strategic resources.

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Bigger numbers mean better game, right?

And while you still can’t buy them on the market, you can trade them to other empires!

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It belongs in MY museum!

I don’t really have the space here to show you ALL the things, but here, have a tease.

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Archaeotitan go brrrrrrrr

Oh and one last thing before we wrap things up. I might have made a Devolving Beam for colossi, to return those pesky humans from the UNE back to their origins:

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Return to Monke!

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They’ll make good pets.
 
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Will Devolving Beam reset the trait of pops? I say, if we devolve some pops on a tomb world, for example, will they lose all additional traits and get pre-sapient trait, like irradiated?
Devolving Beam could also add some dangerous wildlife and city ruins to the planet, I think.
 
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Not a big fan of the Origin, the flavor is just so weird and borderline nonsensical IMO. "A newly terraformed world was granted to the fearmongers!", what? It's like humanity finally figuring out how to terraform Mars and after spending enormous resources doing that immediately granting it to some people with controversial opinions. I would have much preferred the player being the one paranoid and following the "dark forest" theory but I guess Paradox couldn't figure out a fun way to do that.

Really like the minor relic changes though! Excited to do a remnants playthrough.
 
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Will binary planets appear in the wild?
 
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Before I riot against the Devolving beam:
Can pre-sapients enlighten themselves into the Stone Age primitives in this new update? Earlier dev diaries did briefly mention presapients alongside primitives so I wonder. Because up until now pre-sapients have never been able to go into the Stone Age on their own and always need to be Enlightened by a player or AI.

If this is not the case, then the Devolving Beam feels rather worthless to me. I'd rather have a Devolving Beam that sends them back to the stone age in that case, as that's more interesting AND more on point with the flavor of the DLC.
 
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I am VERY interested in the Baol Organic Plant, I've been running an Agrarian Idyll/Catalytic Processing empire recently because I really enjoy the RP value and this seems like it'll make a wonderful addition.

Yeah, it looks like a really good synergy with catalytic empires of any stripe. As in "reroll your precursor until it's baol" good.
 
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Yeah, it looks like a really good synergy with catalytic empires of any stripe. As in "reroll your precursor until it's baol" good.

Another reason I wish there was a "select precursor" setting in game set up. I've seen them all multiple times and would love to be able to pick one when I have a particular RP in mind.

there is a xcom mod on workshop pls make it vanilla. i want a xcom experience

You probably want to wait for the Payback origin DD, which seems the closest we're going to get.
 
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What the hell is this, man? A game?
Only a Image from my Extra-Soft and Extremely Weird Sci-Fi World, Izchyzioworld, Where a Event known as Cosmic Collapse happened 100 Million years ago, Leaving the Former Multiverse a Total Wreck with Half Dead Physics but somehow Life Thrives and instead of Electronics we have Magitroniks
 
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So that Zroni starbase building feels very strange and anti-synergistic with the Zroni. Zroni is the psionic origin which incentivizes you to go psionic and unlock psionic shields - but the starbase building disables shields in whatever star system it's built in.

At least it's probably an auto-win against the Unbidden, or at least a good way to prevent them from conquering your fortresses.

And even if it is anti-synergistic, it just seems completely overpowered in general. Having a portable nebula + pulsar + neutron star is quite insane.
 
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How would the devolving interact with genocidal empires? Since pre-sapient purging is technically a different policy from normal species purging, would this force fanatic purifiers/devouring swarms to kill off their devolved brethren by default?
 
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With a new source for a space storm effect coming up, will we also get an indicator on the galactic map to mark systems with such effects?
 
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With a new source for a space storm effect coming up, will we also get an indicator on the galactic map to mark systems with such effects?

I wish I could like this more than once. The hyperstorms are a nice touch, but without them on the galactic map they can feel a bit random.
 
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What happens if you build an Habitat over a minor artifact deposit? Does it still mine by itself like nanites, zro and living metal? Does it allow for Research districts?
 
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Ok this is important.

If you take this origin, and you start in Sol, and the splinter colony goes to Mars, I need this colony to continue to be called 'Mars' not something from the name list.

This expansion can't be released until this is addressed.
 
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