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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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oh my stars, is the internal politics update the forum's been begging for since 1.0?

Here's hoping it goes better than a lot of reworks in this game do.
 
Will there be new species portraits to match the new leaders or are these unique?
From looking at the art on the steam page (specifically the Avian and bearded human in the council, and the reptilian pirate), I'm kind of thinking we might be getting "hero portraits", that is, special portraits for each species that are only used for Paragons.

The bearded person is clearly a human (but with unique clothes/hair), the pirate looks like Reptilian Slender 02 (with a slightly different face than we've seen before), and the Avian looks like it's Avian Normal 06 (but from a different angle). Plus I think the aquatic species in the right side of the poster (Aquatic 11) might be a color variant we haven't seen before (but I'm at work so I can't check).
 
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Sounds cool, but might leave gestalt concsiouscness lacking. Maybe they should be given completely different mechanics to give them something instead of a council?

Gestalts have their own thing - it wouldn't make sense for them to have a bunch of independent councillors. We'll talk about it a little in the Council dev diary.
 
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So how does it work with gestalts?
Edit: Nevermind, I saw that it has been answered.

Is there always the same structure of the council or does is differ depending on the system being an oligarchy, empire, democracy etc.?

I mean the whole idea is quite good. I just hope it's not a "one fits all" solution.
 
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PLEASE dont tell me this is stellaris' endless academy PLEASE DONT OH GOD THE PTSD

it didnt work before

on another note, didnt we already have problems with certain ethics inherently not working conceptually with things like factions?
now we get a council?

that seems like it can conflict with a few ethics and playstyles /roleplay
 
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"hero portraits", that is, special portraits for each species that are only used for Paragons.
I really hope not; adding in new clothes, hairstyles, and phenotypes and locking them to 10-20 special pops in a galaxy of billions seems wrong, not to mention these would add significant customization options to empire creation which is one of Stellaris' best features. If special pops get anything it should be a special hat.
 
I just realized that leader ethics does not show up on the leaders menu - instead being shown next to planet of origin and flavour desription, suggesting that it is not important (otherwise it would be more visible). It only shows up next to a hireable leader, so perhaps hiring gives a temporary boost to popularity of a given enthics.
 
PLEASE dont tell me this is stellaris' endless academy PLEASE DONT OH GOD THE PTSD

it didnt work before

on another note, didnt we already have problems with certain ethics inherently not working conceptually with things like factions?
now we get a council?

that seems like it can conflict with a few ethics and playstyles /roleplay
What is endless academy and which ethics don't work with factions? How would it conflict?