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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!

8rA6Cq62fXkJkMccZdGfylOhAhq4l0nX32rI_9cwX0vKVEqAAOUdct0_K4LlI7f4PN_nh695KKAzuHd7n2ek6iGXswUu9Bl-dZWll9tSXAD-pFuiFRuf9u2AkYC-AJwJ6eoKyqjhO5ruMoSOQhRAuaI

They’ll make good pets.
 
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If the planet changes class for whatever reason, you will lose the bonuses yes. Better not bulldoze everything and encase it all in concrete if you want to study the ruins of old in peace ;)
So now Remnants is more about the relic world than the free ecumenopolis :)
 
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Loving everything about this update.

On the topic of special events for the new origin, will there be responses from the isolationists to Leviathan parades on your homeworld? Brain slugs? And, of course, the Worm expressing his love? Swapping the primitive society falling to a cult with the isolationists would be a nice flavor change.
 
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would have been a great opportunity to have a storyline like chrysalis for machines
but alas, as usual, we get nothing
 
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Now i'm wondering what the economics of adding an archeo-cyborg (or mechanical) pop trait would be.
Imagining 1-5 MA per pop upgraded (in addition to science) with some pre-historic cyberware giving them immense pop output.
If some archeo-cyborg or archeo-mechanical trait was ACTUALLY implemented, it probably would require very low maintenance and decent output (somethin like 0.02 artifacts maintenance for +5% pop output and +10% habitability) or some very careful balancing. Like 0.15 artifact maintenance for +20% pop output and -75% pop consumer goods maintenance or something.
 
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The origin sounds interesting, but bar future insights not meta-shaking. While there's some technological implications there, the loss of pops and -1 tech option will be killer from a min-maxing perspective... which is good, because not everything needs to be. I will be interested to see if these guys have the possibility of spawning a fanatic purifier or something else as part of their xenophobia.

Without more information it's hard to set expectations, but if the diplomatic demands / tradeoffs are for you to limit your engagements/alliances with other species, but they also work well as a co-belligerant ally in war, then this may be a decent Xenophobe origin. Your expansion may be slower for surveying, but if your partner-planet gives you the key early techs you need, you can focus more on the alloy-side of the economy instead of early game tech until you pop-bloom, and if your border frictions get inflamed, then potential allies in the wing.

Really it's going to come down to how often / how much your missing 8 pops provide, but it wouldn't be impossible for them to be worth more than they would have for you in direct production terms.

Some mechanical thoughts/predictions:

Traits
-Incubators will be a S tier trait for this origin. With 8 starting pops missing, that's an additional 8% growth on your homeworld available to exploit. Incubators is already extremely powerful in early game in general, but more so if you don't plan to get aliens imported, as you can just auto-resettle planets after upgrading them and let them rest at 7 pops for maximum growth bonuses on part with natural biome-growth by most species.
-If the partner planet demands you keep aliens out, then a Thrifty trade build might also be good. For relatively constrained, mono-species empires, trade builds are quite good. Generally xenophobes spread too wide to collect, but that might be less of a problem with the restrictions.

Ethics
-This is really going to depend on how much your allies can help you, and what ways they can develop, and what they demand. Normally I'd say low-pop empires live and die by diplomacy, but that seems likely to have issues if you go xenophile.
-If early warfare is unviable, then this makes the opportunity cost of pacifism go away.

Civics
-Given your lack of people, more envoys is probably the most important thing for stability and security, barring surprise restrictions on diplomacy.
-Environmentalist will probably be very useful at super-charging early-game unity. Traditional unity picks are far more dependent on people you do not have.




Turning to archeotech-

I am interested. As a mid-game strategic resource, this suggests interesting possibilities, especially for precursors which become forgotten modifiers rather than economy-shaping mechanics.

I admit I am curious on the ethic use / conversion of archeotech. Xenophobes in particular are unique for the archeotech-to-influence conversion. Depending on how that changes, this could be very powerful for them, or a major nerf to an origin whose primary bonuses are already stilted to the early game.
 
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Great a origin where a third of your population consists of those doomsday preppers who get all their "information" from some guy on youtube who refuses to shower :p
But then they are also scientists?
Seems a bit muddled, tbh.

No, they're not idiots. They just made a different calculation than you did about a) the vastness of the galaxy (and hence the opportunity to hide) and b) the probability of aliens being both aggressive and much, much more advanced, so any fight would be essentially unwinnable. It's a perfectly reasonable position if you take away the meta knowledge of Stellaris being a game where there isn't really anywhere to hide (even the L-Cluster isn't safe for long) and you have a good chance of taking over the galaxy (partly because the forces that could crush you, aren't interested in doing so, e.g. Fallen Empires).

As far as I can tell, you can take this origin and still be Fanatic Xenophobe, it's just that your faction has chosen a more proactive approach to dealing with the alien menace. It'll be interesting to see if your own ethics along the Xenophile-Xenophobe axis affect the storyline choices.
 
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You technically can hide in stellaris
If you're in a nebula you're mostly safe, if you exclusively use stealth ships your fleet can't be found and while you cannot hide a whole planet (unless you shield it) splitting your population allows you to not get destroyed by a singular use super weapon (aka the colossus would need to shoot twice)
Also they may just be paranoid enough to come up with systems to emergency shutdown EVERYTHING before quickly moving the entire populace underground in case of alien attack, assuming they even live on the surface in the first place
 
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Great a origin where a third of your population consists of those doomsday preppers who get all their "information" from some guy on youtube who refuses to shower :p
But then they are also scientists?
Seems a bit muddled, tbh.
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke

They aren't stupid, they just find it more terrifying that we are not alone in the Universe. Because of that, they fortify their home system with space submarine fleet.
 
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If "splinter group" is a different Empire - what's to stop the player or AI from conquering them immediately and just gaining a second planet for a cost of 3-4 invasion armies (100 minerals a pop, IIRC)? This can be a superpower start, especially if guaranteed habitable words are turned off.
 
I'm already imagining a Branch Office Building with a minor artifact upkeep (where it will stay, purely in my imagination.)
Personally think a building that buys or otherwise liberates local artifacts of interest for the megacorp, generating minor artifacts would be good. Then we can get in to the artifact trade. Please an Expropriations Office for criminal megacorp? Maybe normal megacorps get a version with artifact upkeep that generates other resources instead like an exhibition?

Kind of want there to be more distinction between the way normal & criminal megacorp branch offices work in general.
 
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If "splinter group" is a different Empire - what's to stop the player or AI from conquering them immediately and just gaining a second planet for a cost of 3-4 invasion armies (100 minerals a pop, IIRC)? This can be a superpower start, especially if guaranteed habitable words are turned off.
They probably will have a decently sized defence forces
Since they're paranoid against alien attacks

Also unlike primitives they will have proper armies and not handicapped pushovers relying on numbers

And anything you may gain from conquering them is guaranteed to be less good than the stuff you would gain by actually playing the story and taking their gifts - same as killing and resurrecting the dragon in "here be dragons" early on gives you one dragon and no dragon scales while actually playing the story gives you dragon scales and almost a dozen dragons
 
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Yes! The chances are low so don't expect to see all of the archaeotech pop up in your research this way though.


Thank you all for your replies! I'm still just one man so I can't fix all the things in the blink of an eye, but I'm hyped to see you hyped, and I hope you'll have tons of fun with our new additions!
So this means you cannot get the rare fallen empire tech every now and then?
 
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I had some ideas for Minor Artifacts edicts:

Spirit/Phobe:
Minor Artifact Burning
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+50% Xenophobe Ethics Attraction
+25% Spiritualist Ethics Attraction

Spirit/Phile:
Minor Artifact Worship
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+50% Spiritualist Ethics Attraction
+25% Xenophile Ethics Attraction

Materialist:
Minor Artifact Studies
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+50% Archaeostudies Research Speed
+25% Materialist Ethics Attraction

And some alternatives to the Megacorp ideas given above:

Megacorps:
Minor Artifacts as Goods
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+10% Fabricator Output
+0.5
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Fabricator Upkeep

Criminal Megacorps:
Minor Artifact Dark Market
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+3
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from Branch Offices
 
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Also will gestalts be able to make federation specific types on civics yet?

Also gestalt unity is just inherently horrible, any plans on helping that as well? Or make gestalt civics stronger
Such as natural neural network / Static Research Analysis or Introspective giving unity from researcher drones like a small amount or make it give the higher chance that technocracy has to roll specific techs in their field of expertise?

Stuff like fanatic materialist also is a lot better than Zero-Waste Protocols, not to mention gestalts do not get an upgraded sentinel post... so we cannot fight deviancy for a while.

Also will we be able to get the parasitic overmind if we take necrophage as well?
 
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Really loving the ancient relics update. Does the remnants start with something to offset the 20 energy upkeep on the faculty of archostudies?
 
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