Stellaris Dev Diary #297 - Leaders, The Council, and Agendas

[PDS_Iggy]

Any Information about how/if the whole system works, if you play Overtuned to the max, where your leaders could die pretty much every month?

I would not recommend going for a leader build with Overturned or Ascended Clone army.

I'd like to repeat my question here: With the new spotlight on leaders, can we finally get aging portraits like in CK3? This would make this cool DLC just superb!

They can dynamically make it with 3D portraits since they have all these fancy sliders and such to pull on. Additionally, they only have one species to contend with. For this to work in Stellaris we would need an entirely new system that would change what portrait is loaded based on certain triggers as well as having totally new art.

To put it short: No aging portraits

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Just so I'm sure I understand thisView attachment 973064

This doesn't mean we lose research jobs on planets - just that the 3 leaders we use to help get new technology, is that correct?


All sounds good though.

Yup, just the scientist positions that headed up research in each field.

If you can basically level up leaders and choose traits for them, how will this affect something like Shadow Council civic?
And isn't that somewhat of a disadvantage for Democratic empires which potentially change leaders every 10 or 20 years?

Democracies have something new. I'll see if I can grab a screenshot.

What happens if you have more than 3 Civics?

E.g. in vanilla you can sometimes have 4 Civics, and with mods you can have an arbitrary number of Civic points.

Currently, the maximum council size for regular empires or megacorps is the core 3 members + 3 positions from civics. For gestalts it's fixed to the ruler + four nodes.

Its disappointing that you removed research scientist positions. Guess there is no way now to target techs with expertise traits (does they exist even anymore)?

Expertise traits now apply if the scientist with those traits is serving on the council (including if they are the empire's ruler).

 

[MonzUn]

So - how deep north is the arctic team located?

We're located in Umeå, about 600 Kilometers north of Stockholm

 

[Sharde]

Question, apologies if it's been asked before: what happens if I, say, have a level 8 scientist and they get elected to be the new leader? Do they keep their scientist traits or do they get randomized ruler traits? Or do we get to level them up as a ruler?

They keep their scientist traits. "Ruler" as a class, has been removed - a ruler now retains their original class (and all traits) upon ascension, and keeps the traits gained during ruling if and when they are no longer the ruler.

 

[Sharde]

This begets more concerns. Does that mean the ruler traits are gone, or can they be gained while the leader is ruling, alongside other traits?

Ruler traits have mostly (if not all) been turned into Councilor traits, and can be acquired by all leaders with the right class. They have been re-balanced as such.
When playing with the DLC, picking a veteran class geared towards the Council (each class has one) increases your chances of acquiring these Councilor traits, on top of some exclusive ones that are unique to that veteran class.

 

[Sharde]

Removing the heads of Research departments without changing how the tech tree works doesn't make any sense to me

With the implementation of Councilor traits, there simply isn't any need for them anymore. If your wish is to manipulate the odds of getting tech, you could theoretically have a Council of mostly scientists (pick your civics well, for example, Technocracy adds a Scientist position), each with the same expertise trait to mess with the odds. Getting the exact expertise trait might take a little time, but do-able with the DLC. I'm sure someone will figure it out.

Shouldn't every planet have a Governor, and meddling in their affairs might upset that world or have you proclaimed as a despot?

Sector governors apply their traits to the sector capital, while applying their skill level to all planets in the sector. Careful planning will allow you to maximise the potential of a key planet and its neighbors. If only there was a way to easier edit sectors and select sector capitals... something like a sector editor.

Will Heirs be leaders after this update? Being able to assign them a position, special or orherwise, so they get better would be great!

Yes. You can groom them properly before they ascend the throne.

 

[Sharde]

Are there at least bonuses that ONLY apply as Ruler, to set that position apart so it's not completely arbitrary which council slots you have your leaders in?

Yes, the slots themselves have inherent bonuses that are multiplied by the leader's skill level. Ruler slots have powerful ones, and are different depending on the authority type. Quoting the dev diary above:

"Including unique Ruler bonuses depending on what kind of authority you have. For example the stronger an Imperial Ruler becomes, the more Power Projection they generate."

Wait, does this mean we can stack expertise traits now? If I had a voidcraft head of research, voidcraft ruler, and even a defense minister really into voidcraft, would my chances to draw megastructure engineering go up by 3x? Or just get the bonus once for anyone on the council having it? Would voidcraft research speed be +45% for each of the 3 traits combined, or just +15% total?

Will multiple scientist traits stack? Let's say you have a scientist with Expertise: Field Manipulation get elected as your ruler and your Head of Research also has that trait. Will you get an even bigger bonus to those techs or is there no additional bonus?

Yes, multiple similar Scientist Councilor Traits will stack.
But the Minister of Defense cannot be a Scientist, so it cannot possibly have an expertise trait.
The other 5 positions? Go nuts.

 

[Tremnei]

I'm confused about the removal of dedicated researchers on science ships - does this mean all the current events which impacted on those researchers out in space are now null and void?

Scientists, Admirals and Generals are mostly unchanged in how they are used.
Science ships still require a scientist to be on it in order to function.

Leaders on your council can also be on a ship/planet ex Head of Research can also be on a science ship.
Two exceptions is the Ruler that can only Rule and the Gestalt nodes.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

They said traits only work for the colony the governor was assigned to.

The part I'm not clear on is their skill. The sector governor's skill will apply to all colonies in the sector that do not have a governor... but does it also apply to the colonies that do have their own governor? As in, do they stack?
If not, then is it always the skill of that colony's governor which is applied, or is it the highest of the 2?

Planets benefit from the traits of the local governor and the skill level of the highest between the local governor and the sector governor. This is really useful if you get a governor that has a bonus to alloy output, so you can boost your forge world. We're not expecting you to have a governor on every planet, just the highly important planets.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Plantoids sneak buff confirmed?

That'll teach me to reply to forum posts on my phone!

 

[Tremnei]

Do leaders gain experience from being on the council? And if so, do they also get experience from their normal duties?

Yes and Yes.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

character becomes a ruler? They've definitely said that tech specialisation traits still work when a character is ruler - so I assumed that all traits would still remain active if a character subsequently becomes a ruler?

Say your ruler is a scientist - traits that apply when they're on the council stay active, whereas traits that require them to be on board a science ship can't be used.

Do leaders gain experience from being on the council? And if so, do they also get experience from their normal duties?

Yes and yes.

 

[Tremnei]

Given the Gestalt Nodes are not usable as leaders, do they count against leader cap?

No they do not count against the leader cap.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Will leaders still be capped at lvl 10? I feel like there's a lot of civics, techs, traits and traditions that increase the max leader lvl way beyond 10, so it feels like a waste to have those bonuses cap at 10

It's safe to assume that anything that affected leaders (such as civics or traditions that affected leader level cap) have been revised with the changes coming in 3.8/Galactic Paragons.