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Stellaris Dev Diary #351 - Storm Chaser Origin, Civics, and Precursors

Hi everyone,

Today, we’ll review the Origin and Civics of the Cosmic Storms Mechanical Expansion and provide some information about the new Precursors (without spoiling everything!)

Cosmic Storms is going to be released on September 10th.

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

Storm Chasers​

Don’t make unnecessary journeys, don’t take risks on treacherous roads, and don’t swim in the sea! This is PDX_Ferry, braving the winds to deliver you a report on the new "Storm Chasers" Origin. For those who thrive on danger and yearn for the thrill of the unknown, this Origin was designed with you in mind.

Start your game as a civilization that has always sought out the extremes. Born on a world ravaged by relentless storms, the Storm Chasers are daredevils and thrill seekers who push themselves to the limits and beyond. They’ve grown strong and daring, turning their chaotic environment into a crucible of innovation and tenacity. But when every storm has been weathered, and every mountain has been climbed, where does an enterprising thrill-seeker turn next? The answer, of course, is the stars.

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The screenshot above was taken from the new pre-scripted empire Yatunan Radicals, which starts with the Origin and a couple of storm-related Civics. While not driven to outmatch others in acts of bravery, hive minds, and machine intelligences may also want to test themselves with this Origin.

From the very beginning, your empire will be propelled into the thick of the DLC’s content, facing down cosmic phenomena that would make even the most seasoned explorers hesitate. Yet, with great risk comes the potential for great reward.

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This Origin is designed to quickly get you into the think of the DLC's action. At game start, your Empire is thrown into the Stormfall situation:

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With early access to storm manipulation technology and by starting in a system with unique conditions to kickstart a storm, the Storm Chasers have the first opportunity to unleash a storm. From there, the Origin's storyline includes a gauntlet of Challenges, and the chance to summon "the Big One." What's left of your civilization in the aftermath rests entirely in your hands (or tentacles!)

So be warned – this is not a path for the faint-hearted. The thrills your people have chased for centuries pale in comparison to the cosmic tempests that await you in the void. Will you harness these forces and lead your empire to greatness, or will you burn out in a blaze of glory? The choice, as always, is yours.

Do You Know What Happens to a Blorg When It’s Hit by Lightning?​

Hello there xeno-freshmen, could we interest you in Astrometeorology 101?

As the first of the three new civics coming in Cosmic Storms, Astrometeorology focuses on the science behind the storms. It grants you a new building, the Astrometeorology Observatory, which in turn gives you Astrometeorologist jobs.

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You can build one of those fine institutes per planet and their jobs are similar enough to normal researchers with a slight focus on physics. However, their true potential shows itself only when the Observatory can behold a storm from up close.

In addition, the council position further boosts the job output by up to 20%.

What, you prefer something more societal? Maybe have a look at our second new civic then.

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The spiritualistic mirror to Astrometeorology, Storm Devotion gives you access to the Storm Summoning Theater, with its Storm Dancer jobs.

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In addition, those devoted to Storms also bear this mark as a new species trait called “Storm Touched”, which further boost all pops while inside of a storm. As if that weren’t enough, the Council Position for Storm Devotion reduces the upkeep of all Storm Buildings.

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Storms this, Storms that, is there anything for people who’d rather not see the word Storm plastered over all of their buildings?

Absolutely, let’s talk about Planetscapers.

Planetscapers are the complete opposite of Environmentalists. They want every planetary blocker gone, natural accidents have no place in their carefully planned garden utopias.

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You yearn to make all these rugged, overgrown planets into something beautiful and pristine. For some, Mastery of Nature is enough, but your need requires something more drastic, something more impressive.

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As you expand, every world with natural blockers that you colonize will allow you to quickly unlock more ways to remove those eyesores.

IT IS A CELEBRATION | PAIN | RAGE | GRIEF | FEAR​

You get a Precursor and you get a precursor, everyone gets a precursor!

We have two new Precursors for you all to experience.

The adAkkaria Convention of Benevolence and The Inetian Traders, both steeped in Storm Lore, with several archaeology sites and special projects to progress through as you uncover their secrets, diggin’ deeper into what sorts of empires would meddle with storms so devastating they are notable on the cosmic scale.

So without giving out too many spoilers, from their names at least you know they were benevolent people and peaceful traders with little chance for tragedy.

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Next Week​

Next week we’ll have the preliminary release notes for the 3.13 ‘Vela’ update and Cosmic Storms! It’s almost here!

See you then!

 
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I might sounds salty, but "planetacapers" do not feels like opposite to environmentalists, mostly because Environmentalists are based on something that player have no control of. It's not opposite approach, it's bonus to things that players do either way while environmentalists some bonuses to celebrate random things on planet. Would be great if environmentalists could create blockers on planets.
I think there's a strong case to be made that Environmentalists should be capable of making more blockers via a decision working somewhat like Nanotech's world decision. Probably not up to a super high cap, jobless income is too strong for that, but a decent percentage of the planet becoming blocked off has its own downsides anyway.

Perhaps such artificial blockers would be worse for unity than those that already exist, but it'd be nice to be able to play Environmentalists while at least somewhat less dependent on sheer chance.
 
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They can make blockers. Those blockers give Ranger jobs and the flat unity all natural blockers give, but they don't give any increase to ranger yields. A blocker that does the inverse (buffs Rangers, but gives no unity or ranger jobs) would be interesting, though.
 
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Personally i think that Enviromentalists and Industrialists should be ethics rather than civics
 
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Chaotic influences like bees are not acceptable in our perfect garden.

The intent is the feeling that Planetscapers are not coexisting in a natural sustainable ecosystem, they are bending the planet to their will.
That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense when habitats and ring worlds - literal artificial worlds - do not get such a penalty.

Just say it's "balance".
 
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That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense when habitats and ring worlds - literal artificial worlds - do not get such a penalty.

Just say it's "balance".
Habitats literally get penalized and have lower habitability than regular planets

Ring worlds and ecumenopoli may be fine, but those are super late game and super advanced technologies

Also an ecumenopolis is a fully enclosed planet with tech everywhere, Planetscapers instead are essentially turning the planet into a fancy garden with perfectly cut grass, straight rivers and perfectly sculpted hedges and mountains - it looks pretty, it's an efficient use of space, but it's too structured to properly support life like a gaia world or a ring world would
 
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This Origin is designed to quickly get you into the think of the DLC's action. At game start, your Empire is thrown into the Stormfall situation:
Ah, yes the classic:
- Oh no, we forgot to make an origin for the DLC! Johnny what are we gonna do?
- Rift world 2.0, they'll eat it.
- Johnny you're a damn genius!

The creative bankruptcy of these "start DLC early" origins is just sad.

But at least you finally revealed a reason for this DLC existence - 2 new Percursors. The thing people actually wanted and asked for.
So your gonna ship it with the content you know is mid.
And there I thought you learned the lesson with Machine Age and DLC content is actually going to be coherent and restricted to the topic.
Back to shipping Jugernaut with "Federations" days it seems...
 
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Ah, yes the classic:
- Oh no, we forgot to make an origin for the DLC! Johnny what are we gonna do?
- Rift world 2.0, they'll eat it.
- Johnny you're a damn genius!

The creative bankruptcy of these "start DLC early" origins is just sad.

But at least you finally revealed a reason for this DLC existence - 2 new Percursors. The thing people actually wanted and asked for.
So your gonna ship it with the content you know is mid.
And there I thought you learned the lesson with Machine Age and DLC content is actually going to be coherent and restricted to the topic.
Back to shipping Jugernaut with "Federations" days it seems...
More like they're making a cheaper smaller DLC that adds some small things while overhauling an outdated old feature on a scale that wouldn't be doable by the custodian team

And you don't get to start early with those origins you get to interact with the mechanics on a deeper and more extensive level than normal empires
 
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That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense when habitats and ring worlds - literal artificial worlds - do not get such a penalty.

Just say it's "balance".

Ringworlds have complete crafted ecosystems. Habitats start with terrible habitability.

In my view, these take a functional natural ecosystem and cull it to their idea of perfection, which isn't actually great for it. Much like the insect diversity of American lawns vs. natural meadows full of local wildflowers, or the environmental effects of reintroducing wolves to certain areas.

Makes for a great garden or golf course though.

Now, it's not necessary to have such a cynical view of the Planetscapers - we try to let you decide the motivations of your empire. Our CD lead views them more as zen gardeners than the galaxy's biggest and most destructive HOA.
 
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Ah, yes the classic:
- Oh no, we forgot to make an origin for the DLC! Johnny what are we gonna do?
- Rift world 2.0, they'll eat it.
- Johnny you're a damn genius!

The creative bankruptcy of these "start DLC early" origins is just sad.

But at least you finally revealed a reason for this DLC existence - 2 new Percursors. The thing people actually wanted and asked for.
So your gonna ship it with the content you know is mid.
And there I thought you learned the lesson with Machine Age and DLC content is actually going to be coherent and restricted to the topic.
Back to shipping Jugernaut with "Federations" days it seems...
The fact that you don't want anything in this DLC except the precursors (which we know nothing mechanically functional about yet) is a "you" problem. I want nearly all of the features in this DLC, which also happens to be half the price Machine Age was. They're not bad features, they may however not be features you want to play with.

Riftworld is uniquely bad in that it does nothing besides access a DLC feature quickly. It would be fixed entirely by putting azilash/The Formless under it specifically (which would also fix bad interactions like Overtuned with the Eternal Throne). This origin does plenty to aid a storm-focused empire and, unlike Riftworld due to those previously mentioned issues, I intend to use it.

Let me be clear: if you hate this game and every DLC and the way Paradox makes content, you do not need to announce your departure. If you don't like this DLC specifically, unless you're in a hostage situation you'd like to disclose, nobody is forcing you to buy it. Crusader Kings is full of content I have no interest in, yet I play that game frequently - I just don't buy the content I'm not interested in, and I don't bother making daily posts on dev diaries for it to announce that I'm not interested either.
 
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The creative bankruptcy of these "start DLC early" origins is just sad.
They're fine.

You buy a new DLC and want to jump straight into the mechanics. Great! There's not only an origin for exploring these mechanics, but there's also a premade empire with that origin.

If you want to experience the DLC mechanics more organically, you can just not use the origin.

Accessibility for an already dense game is literally the last thing I would complain about. Yeah, Riftworld specifically was lame in that access to rifts was the only thing it had going for it, but I wouldn't toss away the concept just because there was one lame origin.
 
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They're fine.

You buy a new DLC and want to jump straight into the mechanics. Great! There's not only an origin for exploring these mechanics, but there's also a premade empire with that origin.

If you want to experience the DLC mechanics more organically, you can just not use the origin.

Accessibility for an already dense game is literally the last thing I would complain about. Yeah, Riftworld specifically was lame in that access to rifts was the only thing it had going for it, but I wouldn't toss away the concept just because there was one lame origin.
I think the main problem with Riftworld is that early access to rifts aren't all that impactful. No one's complaining about Arc Welders even though it's the same type of origin, because early access to Arc Furnaces does change your early game.
 
Now, it's not necessary to have such a cynical view of the Planetscapers - we try to let you decide the motivations of your empire. Our CD lead views them more as zen gardeners than the galaxy's biggest and most destructive HOA.
So the Wenkwort aliens could be considered planetscapers given the Zen World in the same system? Because that was definitely not the feeling I got from the civic.

e; also wenkwort precursor when
 
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I can already see myself taking planetscapers with environmentalists just to reform out of it, just to have the extra blockers on my homeworld.
Given that it has game start conditions you probably have to start with it

And it's probably mutually exclusive with environmentalist, given that they are opposites
 
Given that it has game start conditions you probably have to start with it

And it's probably mutually exclusive with environmentalist, given that they are opposites
I don't see those conditions in the screenshot, though I would not be surprised if they are added.

I'd be mildly saddened though.