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Stellaris Dev Diary #296 - Announcing Galactic Paragons

Over the past year we’ve been working on several things in parallel. While PDS Green in Stockholm was building the First Contact Story Pack, our colleagues at PDS Arctic in Umeå were working on a major project as well.


I’m extremely pleased to announce that Galactic Paragons, an expansion focusing on leaders and their impact on your empire, will be released alongside Stellaris’ seventh anniversary on May 9th.

Galactic Paragons Logo

Galactic Paragons is now available to wishlist.

I’m turning the diary over to Petter Nallo, who directed the development of Galactic Paragons, to explain their vision and provide a list of features.

The Vision of Galactic Paragons​

Amidst the great empires of the galaxy, there are luminaries who rise above the masses. They take on many forms: cunning rulers, ruthless warlords, devout prophets, bold explorers, and visionary scientists. These leaders leave indelible imprints on their empires, etching their names into the annals of history and the collective consciousness of the people they ruled.

The Galactic Paragons expansion focuses on these extraordinary individuals, seeking to capture the essence of their epochal reigns.

Event Image from Galactic Paragons

Tell us their stories​

The new level up system will allow you to shape your leaders in a whole new way. Pick traits, select between Veteran Classes and find them positions where they may excel. They are also tied to the galaxy in a new way with a home planet, a previous profession and their own ethics. Follow their journeys and witness their unique destinies unfold.

Leveling up Dolores Muwanga

The Council​

A new ruling council is introduced, where characters in the highest positions of your empire may take their place. Powerful traits have immense influence over all that lies within your empire's borders. And from here, you can unleash political agendas.

The UNE Council

Legendary leaders​

Out there in the void you may discover powerful paragons. These may seek to join your empire depending on your ethics. Here, may be approached by greedy governors who grovel in the dust, cunning spymasters, prophets who disseminate knowledge of the Shroud and so on. But as you explore the galaxy you may also encounter truly legendary beings that may change the core of your empire.


And then the rest…​

There will be a new origin, several new civics, tradition trees, agendas, council positions and much more.

More will be revealed in the near future.

Galactic Paragons

What’s Next​

You may notice that May 9th isn’t very far away, so we’ll be continuing a twice-a-week dev diary schedule until the anniversary and Galactic Paragon’s release. There are a lot of features to get through, so be prepared for some longer than usual diaries.

This Thursday we’ll explore the Council, Leaders, and Agendas.

See you then!

Wishlist now!
 

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What about those of us who did Renegade runs?

Mass Effect jokes aside, this looks absolutely amazing and it came out of nowhere, making it even better! I can’t wait to learn more!
 
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Some screenshot observations for y'all.

The traits have Roman numerals, with the "Eye for Talent" trait having "II".
  • Leader traits can seemingly be repeated, i.e. have levels.
    • Speculation: leader traits can get more than just 2 levels.
      (Just how Deep Connections can we get?)
    • Speculation: if each additional level of a Leader trait is counted as a new trait, this would explain much of the "Hundreds of new Leader traits".

This leader can seemingly choose between 3 traits from gaining a level; 2 onscreen, and the bottom button says "1 more".
  • It seems there is still randomness, but we get to choose from multiple traits rather than potentially being stuck with the least desired one.
  • It seems unlikely the interface would be designed with a "more" button if it only ever showed just 1 more trait.
    • Speculation: there may be some randomness to the number of traits available to choose from.
    • Speculation: there may be modifiers that affect the number of traits we can choose from. These could come from anywhere; civics, species traits, leader traits, edicts, policies, technologies, origins.
  • Concern: does the AI know how to pick good traits from the random selection?
    • If not, will AI empires be compensated somehow?

"Launched Agendas". At the bottom there is a progress bar that has seemingly just started.
  • Previously, rulers have been stuck with a randomly assigned agenda their whole reign.
    • Speculation: agendas are now chosen from a set of alternatives.
    • Speculation: we can potentially run more than one agenda at a time.
  • While the absence of listed agendas is consistent with UNE being Democratic, is seems strange that the screen does not mention Mandates instead.
    • Speculation 1: Democratic is getting Agendas.
      • This is supported by the progress bar at the bottom having started.
      • Subspeculation: no more mining station election promises from Torba'Vilin?
    • Speculation 2: it is a beta screenshot and the final expansion will reference Mandates instead.
      • Subspeculation: if Agendas are being changed, it would be strange to leave Mandates untouched.

The leftmost and rightmost leader roles have icons from civics: Idealistic Foundation and Beacon of Liberty. The role names "Tribune of Rights" and "Protector of Liberty" align very well with these role names.
  • Civics seem to influence the names of the two outermost leader roles.
  • The three central leader roles seem more generic, with the central one being the ruler.
  • Speculation: each civic adds +1 council spot.
  • Speculation: council spots from civics offer different effects (not just different names).

No good idea for the meaning of the three dots in the top left, or the exact roles of the bottom buttons.
 
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Looks like a great concept and I hope it’s executed well. I just worry about these sudden changes that come with the anniversary. Isn’t this how we got those rushed, “endless variation but zero actual diversity” human portraits?
 
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We should expand this focus on individuals to include marriage and children. Houses and personalized diplomacy with foreign empires through leaders and (when species-compatible) marriage would be excellent.
 
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Will the custodians be adding "galactic heroes" ((paragons?) to prior DLCs like toxoids and first contact?
While no new ones are added we Custodians here at Studio Green already used the new system for fan favorites. So after 3.8 drops make sure to go and visit your old pal Warform again!
 
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I'm liking the the idea of a ruling Council. I assume that different governments and ethos will have different councilors?
 
Hang on, "expansion"? So the same size as Overlord, Apocalypse, etc? I know you said there will be much more, but I do hope that the new system of leaders and councils are big enough to warrant the "expansion" declaration. But I will reserve judgement until I read the first diary.
 
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This is not THE internal politics rework. Fixed that for you.
In last week's DD, with the army builder/bombardment/devastation changes, I really wanted to include
This is the ground combat rework you were looking for.
 
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A nice surprise which sets up some potential inter-council conflict if the devs and/or modders decide to go down that road:

"Where are my alloys???!!?"
"Don't look at me, I don't have enough minerals. Where is that Minister of Production anyway?!??"
 
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Is there a reason envoys weren't finally added to the leader pool? This seemed like the perfect time to finally add them.

Your three envoy subclasses could be Diplomat, Spymaster, and Linguist (contact and observation posts).

Also curious how the new system works with heirs for imperial and specialist vassal leaders
 
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