Stellaris Dev Diary #350 - Storms and their Aftermath

[Eladrin]

Hi everyone,

The Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion is going to make planetfall on September 10th. That’s not that far away, so today we’ll be going over the Storm mechanics and their aftermath effects.

Passing it over to @Gruntsatwork to take over from here.

How Do Storms Spawn?​

Hello everyone, without much preamble, lets dive right into the new storm mechanics.

• Storms will randomly start to spawn a few years after gamestart.
• Each Storm triggers a cooldown until the next natural storm can spawn (adjustable in Game Settings)
• There is a limit to how many storms can spawn naturally in the early, mid and late-game (adjustable in Game Settings)
• Those limits only apply to randomly spawned storms. Storms created by players, by event or mechanic, will always spawn regardless of any other settings
• Upon being spawned, they will have a target system towards which they will move, dissipating upon reaching that goal or timing out

What Do They Do?​

While the storms through the galaxy, they will have an effect on all systems within their influence.
All Storms share 2 general effects:

• Reduced chance for Emergency FTL jumps
• +0.2 monthly devastation

In Addition, each of the 8 Storms has their own unique effects, here are the first 6:

While the first 6 storms are rather orthodox in their effects, the Shroud and Nexus storms are a bit special.

Shroud storms have a chance to change the systems within their influence immediately upon coming into contact, this can range from colonies, habitable and inhabitable planets, up to stars.

Nexus storms are special. They are rarer than any other storm and for a good reason, they are bad news. A Nexus storm is an opportunity… for everyone else. They wreak havoc across all worlds in their influence with a far greater intensity than the other, lesser, storms.

The Morning After​

After a storm leaves a system, its ongoing effects are removed. However, given their cataclysmic impact, there are a few aftermaths to deal with.

Each Storm leaves behind their own unique Aftermath modifier, lasting for 3 years. Those aftermaths have an intensity between 1-3, with 3 being the strongest modifiers. (The effects themselves are the same, only intensity increases)

In addition, when a storm leaves a system, there is also a chance it will leave behind new unique Planetary Features, Planetary Modifiers and Anomalies.

Some New Planetary Features:

Example of a New Modifier

Examples of some New Anomalies

Protecting Yourself​

Some of those storms can get quite nasty and devastation is always worrisome, so how do you stop the storms from ravaging your planets?

We have introduced several new buildings and technologies to protect yourself or maybe squeeze a bit more use out of a storm.

Storm Attraction and Storm Repulsion are the two ways in which you can manipulate the paths in which storms move. Storm Attraction buildings and their repelling counterparts can be build on planets and starbases. Each has 1 upgrade level and grants you researcher jobs.

In Addition you can build the Storm Relief Center, to reduce some of the effects of the storms, while also buffing your base resource output while a storm is affecting your planet. Should you be able to convince the Galactic Community to pass a few storm related resolutions, those bonuses will become even more powerful.

With the Storm Relief Center you also have the option of “Hunkering Down”, a new planetary decision to reduce your devastation gain and reduce some of the storm's impact.

As you encounter cosmic storms, you will also get access to new technologies meant to reduce some of their negative effects on your economy and ships.

As your last line of defense, you can use your Planetary Shield Generators to reduce the devastation you gain from storms by -50%

All in all, a prepared player will have many options of avoiding the worst of the storms effects, while benefiting from the opportunities they offer, using them to tip the scales between themselves and their enemies.

The Weather Mapmode​

Once you have researched the necessary technologies, you will be able to use the new Weather mapmode to get a good overview of both Storm Attraction/Repulsion as well as the paths already existing storms will take.

I’m sure knowing where a storm that grants cloaking to all ships within will move is something none of you will abuse.

Next Week​

Next week we’ll be going over the Storm Chaser Origin, the new Civics, and the new Precursors.

See you then!

Pre-purchase Stellaris: Cosmic Storms alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

 

[Eladrin]

I've noticed there's a lack of details on what, if any, changes will be made to the existing hyperspace storm mechanic

The existing hyperspace storm is being removed. We really didn't like how it played, since it was pure negatives randomly scattered across half the galaxy.

hope there are ap that allow player to keep a few permanent storm around

Both the Galactic Weather Control AP and one of the Relics can ensure your hopes are fulfilled.

Will there be changes to how the Zroni Storm Caster works aside from the fact the storm it creates will be Psionic now?

The Zroni Stormcaster currently behaves as it did before, as it's a system storm rather than a galactic scale one.

We are considering flipping it around though so it hardens shields and strips armor to make it better match the psionic theme, but that's unlikely to be in the initial releases of 3.13. (Localization lead times.)

Also, would the effects of the psionic and Nexus storms or should we wait until launch to see what's that about?

We're letting you run into those face-first instead of spoiling them.

 

[Eladrin]

Storms slowly move across the galaxy, and are unlikely to sit on a single planet for decades unless you've intentionally pinned them in.

(Behind the scenes, they have an initial target system and a speed, and calculate their lifespan based on how long it should take them to get there. Attraction and Repulsion can mess with this, and that's totally okay. Just because it originally "wanted to" go to Alpha Centauri doesn't mean that's where it's going to actually move.)

If they contact another storm, one will be the victor and the other should fade away.

All of @Gruntsatwork 's storms have identical durations because he, like me, is a dirty cheater, and all of his storms were going from Default System 0 to Default System (x). The final tooltips have the durations formatted into years (or months or days as appropriate).

 

[Eladrin]

I feel obliged to build all the storm attracting buildings I can find and then Storm Relief Centers.

Let's see how you like invading a nightmare realm >

Don't forget to pass all the Storm Relief GalCom Resolutions so you can commit galactic insurance fraud.

 

[Eladrin]

Will the storms add planetary features to Habitats and Ring Worlds? Will they get planetary modifiers from the storms?

Planetary features are limited to non-artificial planets.

They still get the aftermath modifiers.

How often will storms leave behind new stuff like anomalies, deposits or events? If its pretty often, then the storms would likely be a whole lot more welcome.

Each storm has a chance to leave something behind in every system they pass through. It's relatively rare so you won't feel spammed by them, but many storms will leave something behind in their path. If I remember correctly, uncovering planetary features is a bit more common than the anomalies.

The storms being a more complex mechanic is a good thing looking forward

Personally, I am very much looking forward to what our modders end up doing with them. I know they'll come up with some wild stuff that we didn't even dream of.