Stellaris Dev Diary #294 - 3.8 ‘Gemini’ Coop Open Beta Release Notes

[Verx90]

You do realize that the problem with archaeotech is that most of the techs are useless and most of the techs that are not useless are too expensive to ever use?

This come from the idea that you need to use them on all ship you use , and usualy you use only 1 ship design and spam it.

i used them quite succesfull , i just had to limit myself to 1 fleet with those tech , because otherwise i could never afford to rebuild all the fleets in case of loses...
you know, actualy using ship design to make more than 6 designs .

 

[Lorenerd11]

You do realize that the problem with archaeotech is that most of the techs are useless and most of the techs that are not useless are too expensive to ever use?

Honestly, no single component should cost more than 2, maybe 3 minor artifacts.

Producing a fleet of 50 ships, each with 2 archeotech components at that cost each would still cost something like 200-300 minor artifacts.

 

[Thiend]

Honestly, no single component should cost more than 2, maybe 3 minor artifacts.

Producing a fleet of 50 ships, each with 2 archeotech components at that cost each would still something like 200-300 minor artifacts.

A significant number of the different components are also currently awful. The worst is the kinetic weapon, which on average is beaten by T2 kinetic weapons regardless of AP because of lower accuracy.

I can work with "extremely scarce, make elite fleets" but right now it doesn't make elite fleets. It makes on average T3 fleets except for a couple standout options. I'd accept sidegrade T5.5 (that is, generally bit better than tier 5 but not linearly better, different modifiers/stats than a strict upgrade) but right now some of them I wouldn't build if they were literally free.

 

[DaJay42]

[UI] Removed the in-game web browser. The game will now use the platform's browser instead.

This sounds to me like it might break the in-game tech tree mods etc. That'd be quite sad :/

 

[SirBlackAxe]

• Fixed a typo in the Cloud, Snagged event (federations3.2010)

Do you know if that event chain breaking if any member times out on the project was also fixed?

• AI

Always nice to see AI improvements!

• Added copy_flags_and_variables_from effect to copy all flags and variables from one scope to another

Ooh. Can anyone think of any flags or variables that would make this unsafe to use on released empires so that they inherit stuff from the empire they were part of?

• You can now use "initializer = random" in the spawn_system effect

I'd be very very interested in hearing some more details about how this works!

• Does this specifically choose from amongst initializers with usage = misc_system_init, or can it pull from other usages?
  • initializer = <usage/random_list> would be lovely to have, btw.
• Does it take usage_odds into account?
  • If so, does it just ignore things like bottleneck and resource cluster requirements?
• Does it take the spawn_chance/scaled_spawn_chance into account?
  • If so, does it respect the null spawn results from during galaxy generation, or does it roll again each time?
• Can it spawn systems with a max limit that previously tried but failed to spawn?

On the topic of system spawning, some other modding functionality on my wishlist includes...

• spawn_system: Ability to use parameters and/or dynamic variables for min/max_distance and min/max_orientation_angle
• A trigger that checks how many remaining uses a given initializer has.
• A trigger that checks if an initializer tried to spawn but failed usage.
• Having unique flags set for the prescripted systems that don't have them yet, so you can check the galaxy to see if they've spawned. (Great Wound, Hauer, Yormak's system, Trappist, Hillos, Polaris, everything in unique_system_initializers.txt, trader and possibly other enclave systems, etc.)
  • Or alternatively, a trigger that directly checks if an initializer has been used and successfully spawned a system, so you don't need to scan each system for star flags.

 

[Enfield_PDX]

Stellaris MP is notorious for its "Out of Sync" and putting coop on top of it is like adding stories to a building whos foundations are already crumbling. Can't wait for inevitable metric ton of bugs and devs wasting time trying to fix them.

Maybe it used to be, but from the data I have our OOS rate is very very low.

Coop is also an optional feature, if it's unstable it can be avoided until fixed.

Also..why do you think we're doing an Open Beta?

 

[Kelarys]

A more positive way of looking at it is - fixing of multiplayer stuff will get more attention, bound to happen my friend

Nah, I like the doom approach of the previous poster.

 

[Kelarys]

Maybe it used to be, but from the data I have our OOS rate is very very low.

Coop is also an optional feature, if it's unstable it can be avoided until fixed.

Also..why do you think we're doing an Open Beta?

Also..why do you think we're doing an Open Beta?

Because you like receiving angry messages, passive-agressive feedback and endless bug reports?

 

[Millbot]

So if Montu can be believed, the design intent is that we're not suppose to have a ton of ships running around with archaeotech weapons, This brings up two major issues:

First, the components are going to need to be better. If they are suppose to be no common, than they need to be better than what we normally field or there isn't much point in having them around. I'm perfectly fine with the idea of limiting what we have for certain things, if that's the best possible way to avoid a scenario where you end up with a bunch techs becoming obsolete. It's just that the rarer stuff has to justify being used or there is no point in bothering with it.

Second, the ship designer needs a major pass. The two biggest issues with it are that we can't put together a catalogue of pre-designed ships to use across games, provided we've unlocked all the components. I suspect a number of people don't bother with the ship designer because they get tired of having to redesign the same ships every game. The second issue with the ship designer is that the auto part is not build around the idea of letting players work with the apparent design here. If you aren't suppose to have masses of archaeotech weapon equipped ships, then you need to be able to build ships without those. Problem is the auto ship designer doesn't play at all with the idea that the player might want different designs for each hull type at the same time, it insists on only one design per hull type.

Both of those aspects are going to have to change for this design approach to actual work. Sure you probably could get away with not giving us a means to save ship designs across games, but that really should happen so that the ship designer is more approachable. Again, ton of people probably just go with the less optimal auto designer because they get tired of the tedium of redesigning the same ships over and over again. Sure some players probably really like doing that every game, but I suspect must players would rather not.

 

[Mitchz95]

Added unique textures for Mercury, Venus, Neptune and Uranus for Sol system.

This is an awesome touch! But what about Saturn? It looks fairly featureless irl, while in Stellaris it has the default banded texture.

Also, is Mercury still a molten world or is it now barren?

Added unique textures for Earth and Mars when terraformed based off of available heightmap data.

Does this also apply to the Prethoryn infestation mechanic?

 

[Verx90]

, than they need to be better than what we normally field or there isn't much point in having them around

with the AP they are already better in general... but the idea is that they do things differently , more than aiming to be better .

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

Also, is Mercury still a molten world or is it now barren?

This. Paradox, pls make Mercury a barren world while you're at it.

 

[Jorlem]

[UI] Removed the in-game web browser. The game will now use the platform's browser instead.

So, wait. Does this mean that if I accidentally click this button after the update comes out, it will open Chrome with my 100+ tabs? Welp, time to get a UI mod that gets rid of this button, then. (This also seems like a really bad decision for people who, like me, play in fullscreen instead of windowed mode. I know I've occasionally had issues when alt-tabbing in and out of fullscreen, so an in-game button that forces this to happen seems like a problem waiting to happen.)

 

[Starfire Breeze]

So, wait. Does this mean that if I accidentally click this button after the update comes out, it will open Chrome with my 100+ tabs? Welp, time to get a UI mod that gets rid of this button, then. (This also seems like a really bad decision for people who, like me, play in fullscreen instead of windowed mode. I know I've occasionally had issues when alt-tabbing in and out of fullscreen, so an in-game button that forces this to happen seems like a problem waiting to happen.)

Web browser engines and their associated infrastructure (javascript JIT etc.) typically fall out of date with respect to security vulnerabilities within a matter of weeks if they are not being actively serviced. From that standpoint, it's actually pretty scary to use any web browser engine in any app that isn't being (very) frequently patched to close whatever the latest browser/JS vulnerability of the day is.

(I don't have any particular insight as to why they made the change. But from a security standpoint, it seems like a good idea, as Stellaris definitely doesn't push out monthly (or even more frequent) patches...)

 

[Dekent]

I love the love for Sol, please give more love to it with the gas giants and Venus, it's the most important solar system in the universe after all....that we know of.

 

[Jorlem]

Web browser engines and their associated infrastructure (javascript JIT etc.) typically fall out of date with respect to security vulnerabilities within a matter of weeks if they are not being actively serviced. From that standpoint, it's actually pretty scary to use any web browser engine in any app that isn't being (very) frequently patched to close whatever the latest browser/JS vulnerability of the day is.

(I don't have any particular insight as to why they made the change. But from a security standpoint, it seems like a good idea, as Stellaris definitely doesn't push out monthly (or even more frequent) patches...)

The only website the internal browser needs to access is the wiki, so couldn't they set up a mirror of the wiki that is only accessed by the game browser, which would be limited to that specific site? If the main wiki was set up so only admins from Paradox could upload images, and the mirror site scanned for potential exploits being carried over from the main wiki (or possibly just disabling javascript and ads in the internal browser), I think it would be ok.

At the very least, I hope that clicking the button for opening the wiki will not directly open the wiki in the OS's default browser, but would instead open a confirmation prompt that we want to start a browser outside of the game.

 

[Commander Tobe]

You do realize that the problem with archaeotech is that most of the techs are useless and most of the techs that are not useless are too expensive to ever use?

That reminds me a bit of the espionage system. I think I'm starting to see a pattern here...

 

[Commander Tobe]

So if Montu can be believed, the design intent is that we're not suppose to have a ton of ships running around with archaeotech weapons, This brings up two major issues:

First, the components are going to need to be better. If they are suppose to be no common, than they need to be better than what we normally field or there isn't much point in having them around. I'm perfectly fine with the idea of limiting what we have for certain things, if that's the best possible way to avoid a scenario where you end up with a bunch techs becoming obsolete. It's just that the rarer stuff has to justify being used or there is no point in bothering with it.

I didn't actually play around with it yet but just from the sound of it that makes a lot of sense. It is also what I originally imagined archeotech weapons to be when I first read about it: Like unique weapons in Diablo - rare, powerful, expensive.

 

[Division7]

Loving these changes. Kudos you guys!

 

[klingonadmiral]

i used them quite succesfull , i just had to limit myself to 1 fleet with those tech

You don't pick an ascension perk to make 1 fleet marginally better though.