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

[Losttruppen]

Fair, megastructures was the wrong example,

Megaengineering drawing chances are not influenced by Voidcraft Expertise.

Pretty sure having a Voidcraft Scientist increases tech draw weight for Voidcraft technologies by 25% and Mega-Engineering is a Voidcraft tech.

 

[Navar]

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

Is that something we'll see next week?

 

[kwheeler]

I don't think this is actually as bad as some people think. Most people start the game with 4-6 scientists, with half being research heads. If you only need one lead researcher, that still leaves you 3-4 slots for researchers.

I'm curious how many people have more than 5 scientists early game out surveying and researching anomololies - as I get this sense this is part of some multiplayer meta that most players don't do.

I don't know about most players, but I frequently have around 12 scientists with 9 of them in ships as soon as I can afford them in early game. I usually have about 20 scientists by late game, but by that time I'm using a lot of the scientists to assist research and/or scan for cloaked ships at chokepoints rather than run anomalies.

 

[Jessse]

The new governor system seems incredibly micro heavy if I read it correctly? I don't know how I'd manage an empire where I had to apply a planetary governor to every planet with 30+ planets, deaths being common and matching their traits to their planets

 

[Yurichenko]

Very excited for this new dlc! Just a question: Will this new council mechanic have an equivalent in the federations, Galactic Community and/or Galactic Empire? It would be interesting if the leader of my empire really felt like the galactic emperor or the custodian and not just the leader of my empire. In addition to that it would be interesting to share federal, galactic or imperial council positions with the leaders of other empires.

 

[Critical Ethics]

Well, we don't actually know whether all research specialisation traits will exist only with your Head of Research.

But, to me, forcing the player to choose between faster-but-untargeted research vs slower-generally-but-faster/targeted-on-one-area research is an interesting choice - not a flaw in the system.

Unless they've completely changed the card system that's not how it works. Research multipliers apply every month but the card draw modifiers only occur when research completes. If there's no cooldown you can wait until just before the research completes, swap out for your level 1 voidcraft ruler, let a single month tick over, and swap back to your level 10 research behemoth.

I don't think a cooldown is a great solution for this btw, the whole specialisations-as-research-manipulation system needs a rework beyond just moving the problem from research level to government level.

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.

Currently specialisation-based weighting is a pure yes/no, has it been changed so that the 1.25 weighting multiplier can apply multiple times?

 

[Abdulijubjub]

I would be curious if that is a common occurance - it doesn't mantch my playthroughs.

Literally every game, with every first contact.

Your scientist is wandering out surveying as they go (alone, since you have 6 scientists surveying different parts of the graph) and after you finish contact, the AI makes a beeline for anything you haven't surveyed yet with 3-6 ships.

Its a soft cap, so you CAN go over your scienist limit if you need to rush frontier surveying for a few years.

That just means the AI with +100% unity from jobs will be able to afford going over the cap, and you won't.

6 leaders seems like almost nothing, to me. Especially if that's the soft cap, and it also includes things like envoys (which seem like they'll be an active role for any other type of leader, maybe) and your starting governor.

 

[Critical Ethics]

Fiddlyness is a very reasonable thing to be concerned about imo! I’m not very good at stellaris, so I might not be understanding your concern.

Are you saying that given:
production happens across worlds on a monthly tick;
the cost of a building or blocker clearing occurs on a single day;
there is no cooldown to replace governors;

Then the optimal strategy becomes:

Have a production bonus producing governor;
Replace that governor with a cost reduction governor;
Pay for a building/clear a blocker;
Reinstate the production bonus governor before the end of the month for no loss to production

resulting in:
tedious clicking every time you want to build something (which you understandably care about, and I do not because I will simply not do that);
increased difficulty in suspending our disbelief for the fantasy of the game, because teleporting governors don’t make sense (which I care about and you likely also care about to some extent).

If I’ve understood you, I agree with your suggestion that we should have some form of time constraint on moving leaders, and I think that goal is best accomplished with a simulation of travel time, modified by technology.

I'm not the OP you were replying to but basically yes. You don't even need the "swap out the old governor" option since not all your planets will have governors. Just some guy trucking on to every planet

Cooldowns are a kludgey fix for this kind of thing compared to changing the traits from an instantaneous benefit to something a bit more imaginative that gives returns every month, as well as not inexplicably adding planet-level governors to the update explicitly about making leaders more about big decisions rather than fiddly micro.

 

[Mcgan]

Weight is modified by scientists traits I believe.

Pretty sure having a Voidcraft Scientist increases tech draw weight for Voidcraft technologies by 25% and Mega-Engineering is a Voidcraft tech.

That's how they say it works (judging by the description of "Technocracy"), but this is done by modifiers in script, and there are several technologies missing it. So those (and only those) don't get this boosted weight.
And yes, "Mega-Engineering" is one of those missing it. Looks like a lot of the Megastructure techs are missing it actually.

 

[Critical Ethics]

Megaengineering drawing chances are not influenced by Voidcraft Expertise.

Base weight: 5

20x modifier if your empire contains any megastructure
2x modifier if your empire owns any habitat colony
1.5x modifier if any neighbouring empire has the tech
1.5x modifier with Technological Ascendancy AP
1.5x per owned starbase (up to 9x with 6)
1.5x per owned citadel (up to 9x with 6)

Now of course all the things that make drawing mega-engineering more likely are affected by the higher draw chance with Voidcraft Expertise, but Megaengineering itself is not.

        modifier = {
            factor = 1.5
            OR = {
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_expertise_voidcraft"
                }
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_curator"
                }
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_maniacal"
                }
            }
        }

Intuitive!

 

[klingonadmiral]

Pretty sure having a Voidcraft Scientist increases tech draw weight for Voidcraft technologies by 25% and Mega-Engineering is a Voidcraft tech.

Huh, it does. The wiki was wrong.

And yes, "Mega-Engineering" is one of those missing it. Looks like a lot of the Megastructure techs are missing it actually.

tech_mega_engineering = {
    area = engineering
    cost = @tier5cost3
    tier = 5
    category = { voidcraft }
    ai_update_type = all
    prerequisites = { "tech_starbase_5" "tech_battleships" "tech_zero_point_power" }
    weight = @tier5weight3
    is_rare = yes

    feature_flags = {
        megaengineering
    }

    modifier = {
        country_resource_max_add = 20000
    }

    weight_modifier = {
        factor = 0.25
        modifier = {
            factor = 1.5
            OR = {
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_expertise_voidcraft"
                }
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_curator"
                }
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_maniacal"
                }
            }
        }

 

[SirBlackAxe]

Pretty sure having a Voidcraft Scientist increases tech draw weight for Voidcraft technologies by 25% and Mega-Engineering is a Voidcraft tech.

You know, I also thought I remembered Mega-Engineering wasn't effected by Voidcraft expertise so I went to check the files, and while it turns out we're both wrong you're more correct - Having Expertise: Voidcraft (or Curator or Maniacal) actually increases the weight of Mega-Engineering by 50%!

What’s the +5 governors?

You're going to want planetary governors for your most productive worlds, which will frequently be your earliest-settled ones that would otherwise be handled by the core sector governor on your capital planet.You're going to want a planetary governor for each ringworld segment.

You'll probably also end up with more sectors than before, since you're incentivized to use your best worlds as the capitals instead of centrally-located backwaters that maximize the number of inhabited systems the sector covers.

Bringing back leader capacity may limit how many governors you're able to afford, but it seems like you're absolutely going to want more them.

The tech category traits haven’t been removed. They’re just on Councillors now, rather than on the three dedicated research scientist positions.

The tech field expertise traits haven't been removed, but the reason to restrict all techs in a field to a single one of the physics/society/engineering has been. You can now, say, split psionics techs between society and physics without needing to flip a psionics expertise researcher between them.

 

[Methone]

Loving everything here, both free and paid.

What I'm most excited about is being able to design our rulers pre-game. Not only for that itself, but the potential it opens up in designing other stuff pregame like custom Planetary Features and blockers.

 

[Koopatin]

what does technocracy get? head researcher and chad researcher?

 

[SilentReflection]

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.

How would this work with the Imperial authority, since heirs don't have an original class?

 

[G S Palmer]

How would this work with the Imperial authority, since heirs don't have an original class?

It looks like you can choose the starting class of your beginning ruler, so heirs will probably either be that, or it will be picked at random.

 

[Critical Ethics]

Huh, it does. The wiki was wrong.

tech_mega_engineering = {
    area = engineering
    cost = @tier5cost3
    tier = 5
    category = { voidcraft }
    ai_update_type = all
    prerequisites = { "tech_starbase_5" "tech_battleships" "tech_zero_point_power" }
    weight = @tier5weight3
    is_rare = yes

    feature_flags = {
        megaengineering
    }

    modifier = {
        country_resource_max_add = 20000
    }

    weight_modifier = {
        factor = 0.25
        modifier = {
            factor = 1.5
            OR = {
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_expertise_voidcraft"
                }
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_curator"
                }
                research_leader = {
                    area = engineering
                    has_trait = "leader_trait_maniacal"
                }
            }
        }

And on top of the benefit of having a voidcraft (or curator or maniacal) scientist, having a scientist with non-voidcraft engineering specialisations actively reduces your odds because you're increasing the weighting for other techs and they're all fighting for the same slots. It's not just about swapping in your voidcraft leader, it's about swapping out your industry/materials/rocketry leaders.

How big a deal it is varies a lot based on what you can pull etc but if your odds are already pretty low...

 

[Ex Mudder]

I'm not even talking about multiplayer, just GA where you find your neighbor and they immediately send 6 science ships in your direction to scan everything before you can.

Also happens when you kill things or a new system spawns, all your neighbors and Subjects swarm the location, often before you can get there.

It's particularly bad when you hit a Federation or Hegemon and have all three of them swarming you under.

Very annoying. There needs to be a waiting period for everyone but you.

And thanks for pointing this out, I thought I was being paranoid.

AIs scanning systems should not prevent Players from finding anomalies in those systems, just other AIs. Claiming systems, and other human players scanning, should block new scans.

 

[Metallichydra]

How does this work with leader traits such as psionic and synthetic?

 

[ascii]

Confirmed