Stellaris Dev Diary #321 - Origins and Civics

[Eladrin]

Ok, that extra species portrait is a huge and very welcome suprise

We were wondering if anyone would notice that Atmaz's forum avatar was unique.

I wonder if Riftworld is available for machines?

Yes. Riftworld has no restrictions.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

And i love the Dark Consortium civic. But i see a small missed opportunity here. The shadow matrix edict could our ships allow cloaking from the beginning and make it the cloaking start civic many of us would really like.

Oops, looks like the cloaking edict got cut off, this also requires First Contact and the first tier of cloaking tech though.

 

[Eladrin]

what is formless

There are some things we don't want to spoil... though we've given some hints.

I expect there will be some videos shortly after release though.

 

[Eladrin]

A note regarding tomorrow's dev diary - it's going to be a little later than normal, probably at 15.00 Stockholm time. (Two hours later than usual.)

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Any particular reason for the Corporate Astral Minister providing a strictly better benefit from his job than the regular empire's Astral Minister?

In a nutshell, because megacorps get fewer priests.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Heh.

How about..

Enlightened Emperor:

• Origin: Under One Rule
• Luminary: Scientist, Enlightened Ruler/Wise Mentor/Naive -> Enlightened Ruler3/Wise Mentor1/Pious Ascetic 3/random bonus luminary trait 2/Naive
• Traits: Incubators/Talented/Traditional/Psychological Infertility > Docile/Incubators/Talented/Traditional/Psychological Infertility
• Ethics: Spiritualist/Pacifist/Xenophile -> Fanatic Spiritualist/Xenophile (final shift after Divine Sovereign)
• Civics: Heroic Past/Dark Consortium -> Ascensionists/Dark Consortium/Dimensional Worship/Divine Sovereign
• Traditions: Aptitude, Diplomacy, Expansion, Psionics, Statecraft, Harmony, 1 FREE tradition
• Luminary: Scientist, Enlightened Ruler/Wise Mentor/Naive -> Enlightened Ruler3/Wise Mentor1/Pious Ascetic 3/random bonus luminary trait 2/NaivePerks: Imperial Prerogative, Transcendent Learning, Mind over Matter, Shared Destiny, Arcology Project or World Shaper (depends on how many relic worlds or ecumenopolises found by then), Galactic Wonders, Master Builders, 1 FREE perk

For the FREE traditions and perks, choose one at any point in time when you feel a need for something not already in the list.

Game plan: ascensionist spiritualist leader rush. You only end up with -3 to maximum negative traits rather than the -4 you need for complete safety, but since most leaders have 3 or fewer as their starting number of maximum negative traits and your Luminary starts with one, this is unlikely to be a big problem.

Final council:
Luminary (scientist)
First Disciple (renamed Head Researcher, scientist)
Divine Conduit (Divine Sovereign, scientist)
Shadow Weaver (Dimensional Worship, scientist)
Astral Minister (Dark Consortium, scientist)
Final Word (Ascensionists, governor - renamed Minister of Ascension replacing the Minister of Defense job)

If only you knew how many things in this build are changed in 3.10

 

[Atmaz]

The Dark Consortium is a type of Civic that cannot be added or removed* after the game starts, as it adds some significant changes to your society. Not only do you begin with a Dark Matter deposit in your home system, you already have the capability to harvest it.

I've made a small clarification in the original post.

Technically, the Dark Consortium is a bit unique here. If you start with the Dark Consortium Civic, it can never removed. However, you can add it once you research Dark Matter Drawing, but once you use its Council Agenda to obtain Dark Matter technologies, it can then never be removed. Sorry about any confusion there.

 

[Atmaz]

So is the Rift from the Origin a special, pre-scripted Rift? It'd be pretty hilarious if the Certera finally managed to explore their own afterlife, only to randomly draw a Plane of Infinite Suffering or somesuch.

Indeed, they get a special one. It's designed where each choice you make along the way influences the 'reward' you get at the end.

 

[Atmaz]

Are all the sovereign guardianship civics non-swappable? Only the standard one has it specified.

This has been fixed. They are all non-swappable.

 

[Atmaz]

Maybe I’ve misunderstood but I thought all rifts were designed with branching stories that lead to different outcomes. This seems to imply that normal rifts have set outcomes?

This is true. I worded it poorly.

To be more specific for this one, there is an Empire Modifier you will receive that changes based on your choices - so that each playthrough you can lean into slightly different playstyles.

 

[Eladrin]

I think this issues deserve to be talked about, rather than silently ignored.

Most responses occur while we're in the office.

I.e. incompatibility with Inward Perfection, no solution to the pop growth, being front-loaded with penalties and only back-loaded with positives?

Complex civics are allowed to have challenges that need to be overcome, or vary in power during different points of the game.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

So this is a Humanoid Empire using Arthropod ships?

It is.

 

[Eladrin]

I would disagree with you if you here. The civic is called a tall civic by your team; however, it is not. It does not help you be competitive with wide play; it actually promotes wide play since most empire sprawl is from pops when playing wide, and this makes it easier to manage. u say its a complex civic that gives challenges to overcome, but it's just not what it was said to be, ie a tall civic There is no challenge to overcome, just the same old growth faster than the debuff from the empire sprawl, and with pops getting a -50%, thats going to be easier than ever.

it needs something to actually reward u playing tall like more jobs on districts or more pop output hell even something like increased pop output on ur first system and decreased output on all other systems would promote a tall play style

I would personally call it a militant defensive civic rather than specifically tall or wide, the definitions of which aren't completely clear in Stellaris.

In the early game, the civic suffers from expansion constraints, as picking up too many planets and systems will cause them to fall behind due to Empire Size. In the late game, it does have different behavior due to the strong pops size benefit.

A lot of expansion occurs during the early phase of the game, however, which means that empires with the civic may face some challenges during that portion of the game, and may not be as wide as you would like without some conquest.

 

[Eladrin]

Those are very valid points from the community (and I am very glad the devs are here discussing), but with 4 workdays left I don't think the civic will have any changes before release, people will have to make do and some will exploit it for unintended effects and we'll just have to watch and accept it, and hope the next patches polish it.
At least the other civics and origin do look super fun and will be amazing additions without any changes needed (so far), that's a lot of good quality content It's just the bold move of introducing a game changing civic carries a high risk and well, I am still glad they took it with Guardianship. Eventually it will be a fantastic addition as well, enriched by plenty of player feedback.

I agree with this sentiment - there are valid points being made and we will watch and consider, as we always do. Everyone, please keep on providing your feedback.