Stellaris Dev Diary #361 - The Vision

[Bhaala]

The pop system does need to be changed. It is a fun to manage the pops and see my planets grow to massive sizes. But the lag it has created far far far outweighs the benefits it has brought. In the old tile system, I would go far into the endgame, 2600+, sometimes have campaigns to remake the galaxy in my divine image by terraforming every world, build multiple ring worlds. Now, my games all have a time limit of get as much done by 2450 when the lag gets out of control. Also due to the way pop growth works, which was a result of trying to minimize the lag, I only colonize 12 worlds at max and never build a ring world. There needs to be a compromise where planets can continue to grow to reach ecumenopolis levels but without the lag generation. Maybe pops go toward a work force resource pool instead of every unit of population going through some calculation.

Colonization should have hurdles to jump over but also have unique bonuses. Have the colonization process be a serious of objectives that has to be passed before the first major settlement is up and running.

 

[RhysTheT00n]

I feel like questions such as "How much could we change X before it no longer felt like X" are one of those things where I'd have to hear the proposed change in order to be able to answer. Like, if you'd asked me what I thought about making Battleships doomstacks less viable, I wouldn't have been *enthusiastic* about the idea because I *like* the idea of the ultimate projections of power while I RP the Reapers from Mass Effect, but I'd understand the balance objectives and the desire to create more interesting fleet battles and strategies.

Same thing really when it comes to getting rid of Admin Cap and just generally making technology cost more so that the best players and metas aren't unfair to the AI, especially when the best players and metas will ALWAYS be unfair to the AI because the AI doesn't USE those metas, so all options like that do is arbitrarily make life harder for people who already play the game their own way

 

[GaliaLeyas]

I would like development of infrastructure on planets to become more important than it is. Rather than development being dependent on pop growth it should rather be the other way around.

I would also like more internal politics. Create bigger challenges for the big empires to stay big. The game tends to flatline a bit when you become the biggest blob in the galaxy. More rebellions, bickering factions and more incentives for following dominant ethics and/or manipulating them.

The trade system is fine but could be expanded. Make more resources travel along trade routes. Make blockades a more effective tactic in war.

 

[Vielmann]

• How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
  • Not important at all. I liked the change from tiles to districts/buildings as it increased abstraction and I think the game could go further in that direction.
• If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
  • Probably a lot, but I like the ship designer, so that should stay.
• What aspects are most important in defining your civilization?
  • I usually try to make an empire that goes all in on a mechanic (use food for everything, so anglers + catalytic; get as much cloaking as possible...)
• How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
  • It's mostly the same, try to defeat all crisises at max difficulty.
• How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?
  • The current implementation is annoying, so I ignore it unless I'm playing a trade focused empire. I would like to see trade ships that travel my empire though.
• Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?
  • Yes. There probably should be tech that allows settlement of different planet types. Also maybe limit colony size on hostile planets. Another thing I am missing is colonization of other planet classes like gas giants and asteroids, Habitats don't quite do it for me, but this needs to be combined with a rework of pop growth
• Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?
  • The biggest issue is that some origins feel like you should be able to take them at the same time. Also permanent civics feel weird with origins existing.
• If you could remove one game system, what would it be?
  • Army transport. Put them armies in my fleets! Maybe add a transport component to all ships and additional options for other slots/ship sections. Building armies should stay the way it is.
  • Construction ships. I think they could be gone and the game would work perfectly fine anyway.
• Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion?
  • Only one expansion? Here is my Idea for a complete season. This doesn't include the semi confirmed ascension path reworks and bio ships although I am excited about those
  • I think planetary exploitation, colonisation and a rework of the way pops grow would make a cool expansion. More events when settling unknown planets, being able to settle barren planets, asteroids or gas giants and managing pop distribution in an empire with a lot of space but not enough pops to put them everywhere seems pretty cool. I like the way some habitable objects like ring worlds habitats or ecumenopoli are different mechanically and this would be a nice excuse to add additional special planets. (the big expansion)
  • A celestial species pack because I want cathedral ships. Also space religions.
  • Galactic terrain and harder to get to systems. There should be places in the galaxy where you can only get to after some technological advancements, I often play with galaxies with few empires so I can explore longer, but I don't like that there are not that many empires if I do that.
• Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
  • Megastructures: I made a mod so their construction is a situation which feels better, but they don't feel that mega. You should need to dedicate a significant proportion of your population to the construction effort.
  • Pop growth: Right now land grows pops unless you take budding and that should probably be switched
  • Traditions: The current implementation with distinct tradition trees feels like your empires culture only grows in one diretion at a time. Also you can take a military tradition even if you don't have a military at all. My proposition: make traditions into one giant tree or similar to the devotion constellation in grim dawn and lock some nodes behind certain achievements. The +20 fleet capacity tradition could require having two max size fleets at the same time or something like that.

 

[Santa_Claus]

The game has a lot of content already but the user interface needs an upgrade in a few areas:

Playset manager

• Names are cut off leaving a ton of whitespace, can't edit the table's column width
• Show prerequisites when you click a mod and allow downloading missing prerequisites. Auto order for prerequisites
• Search mods that require selected mod(s) to find patches/integration mods or find new mods that add onto existing mods
• Filter/color by category (they're already tagged in steam, please allow me to filter my huge list to find what I want to add/remove for a playset)
• Allow importing of Steam workshop collections into playsets
• Show mods that modify the same file/folder to easily find conflicts or fix order issues
• If the game crashes on load tell me: what mods were loaded successfully, what mod was loaded when it crashed, what mods that were loaded also edit that same file that was being edited when it crashed

Inside the game

• If tech is not assigned then automatically put the tech points into a tech that already has some tech points
• A button to have the text of a popup read aloud... this is a game, not a book. I don't want to read everything
• Allow popups to be minimized so I can finish what I was doing. Or at least allow me to flag a popup to read later so I can close it and move on
• A popup history that can be grouped by event chains
• Allow filtering of more specific notifications, put a sleep ("zzz") button by each astral action or as a checkbox within any table like relic actions. You allow filtering ALL astral action notifications, but really I just don't want to be notified every time I can afford the hyper relay option or certain relic actions
• Simplify trading with friendly contacts - It's annoying to click through friendly relations, select trade, set 2000 minerals only to find out they don't have it... then starting over with a different empire. Instead have an option in the market to say how much of a resource you want with a button to ask which empires are willing to trade that with a suggested trade proposal based on your excess resources
• Better planet management: don't count unused districts towards empire size, don't pay upkeep of unused buildings, show unused buildings/districts grayed out
• A map toggle to show empire details instead of hyper lanes with key details about the empire summarized: Show me what they look like, relative power/intrigue/tech, matching boarders if in alliance, active/willing agreements (trade/research/immigration/non-aggression), rivalries/relationship with neighbors, do I have a spy network on them and if its next action is available/pending... maybe this is better as a sort of throne room view but in its current state its a pain to click through each empire finding this info. I tend to have to keep my map view in "relationship mode" so I know who's part of each alliance
• Better enclave interaction: show all enclaves and their available/active trades (research/trade agreement available, reliquary can be bought, what strategic resource do they offer) and add an auto renew trade checkbox. Tired of clicking through contacts just to find which trader sells the minerals or if a reliquary is available

This is my wish list for UI stuff to make the game less annoying to play.

 

[Beauty Nova]

Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?

I was dragging my feet because there's so much I want to say about every question, but I figure I should at least answer this one because it's my biggest gripe with the game going on about two years now. And to the surprise of no one who has interacted with me for five minutes it's habitats.

I hate the rework they got. I absolutely loved how they used to work. Void dweller was my most used origin by far. I have not done any void dweller runs (save one to try them out) or bothered building a single habitat outside of said run since the rework. I firmly believe the recent change to ai to stop spamming them was all they ever needed to address the pain points other people had with them, and I base this on the fact that said pain points persisted after the rework until said change was made.

I miss multiple habitats a system. I miss habitats being unique based on what you built them above. I miss habitats not caring about stellar geography beyond the previous point. I miss them being self sufficient and able to be built into whatever you needed them to be, at a price. I miss being able to just plop down a giant mansion for rp reasons. I miss building a bunch of habitats in an out of the way system to keep my precious biotrophies safe, at least on a species level. I miss the old void dweller origin flavor.

I know I'm almost certainly just shouting into the void here, but this is one primal scream session I sorely needed.

 

[wilnadon]

Chiming in with 1190.4 hours as of right this second and own every DLC other than Cosmic Storms. Here's my answers:

• How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
  • Removing pops and jobs would make Stellaris NOT Stellaris anymore. But at the same time, the late game lag caused by pops has GOT to get fixed somehow. It is the single biggest glaring problem this game has. I really like the pops / jobs system, but hate the lag. And I don't play on a toaster, I play on a 7800x3D. But removing pops and/or jobs would be a huge mistake.
• If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
  • I'm okay with the current system of designing ships and building fleets, but when late game fleets get huge, the lag becomes significant.
• What aspects are most important in defining your civilization?
  • I feel like all the important aspects have largely been addressed. I love having options and variety and the game currently provides that.
• How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
  • I conceptualize an end result in my head then engineer my playthroughs in reverse from there. The goals I set along the way change often as I'm forced to adapt to my region of the galaxy, my neighbors, my precursor(s), and random events. But my main end goal usually stays the same from beginning to end. I never just sit down and play without some idea of what I want the outcome to be.
• How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?
  • Not important at all. I use a mod (Optimized Trade) that simplifies it and it increases overall performance by A LOT. Making that mod (or some variation of it) a part of the core game would make me happy.
• Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?
  • I don't think colonization is "too easy" per se. Terraforming and technologies make Habitability a non-issue mid-game and beyond. Perhaps what we need here is more engaging effects from habitability, not just "let's make it harder!!". Also, a change I've been clamoring for is that you give Toxoids the ability to colonize toxic planets. For RP purposes, of course. It's almost never worth using an ascension perk to terraform toxic planets so unfortunately there's an entire aspect of the game that can easily be ignored. Giving Toxoids toxic planet habitability would give players more options and we love having options.
• Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?
  • Oof. That's a tough one for me. I really don't have an opinion here. I am, however, in favor of having more origins. More is always good
• If you could remove one game system, what would it be? Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion? Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
  • Remove: Trade routes. Don't remove them but definitely change them because of the lag they cause and the annoyance of dealing with pirates which doesn't really seem to have a purpose other than pissing the player off, and they add nothing engaging to the game in any meaningful way.
  • Want to enjoy but don't: Planetary combat!! In it's current implementation anyway. Aside from the lols that being subterranean reanimators brings, it's pretty much pointless. As a lifelong RTS enthusiast, what I'd LOVE to have is the option, upon invading a planet, to engage in robust planetary combat of some sort, but I know going down that rabbit hole would be a huge undertaking. At the same time it would make Stellaris the unbeatable king of space sims forever. But in it's current form, it could be removed entirely and not many people would miss it.
  • Focus of Expansion: Biological Ascension Rework. I'd much prefer the above mentioned things be addressed / changed / added / removed before any new expansions or DLC. But since most changes coincide with expansion roll-outs anyway, then an xpac that can rework and improve bio ascension would get my vote. Psionic Ascension could also use some love in the same xpac.

 

[marginoferror]

I'll add to my above comment:

Being a member of a federation, but not the federation leader, is boring. Being neutral in The War in Heaven should be more exciting than watching an AI control a chunk of your fleet power while you are steamrolled.

 

[Akkadian]

on the off chance my comment actually gets read, I'll keep it short to make it readable and efficient.

Why does my view matter?

• 2200 + hours played
• Play most paradox games, including EUIV, CK3, Imperator, AOW4
• Avid grand startegy games player
• In other words, I'm your core customer!

Here is my vision for stellaris:
To be "The most exciting grand strategy sci-fi universe".

The good:

• Fantastic theme
• Diversity of choices: aesthetics, species traits, government, civics, traditions, perks
• Love the concept of colonizing planets
• Love the concept of traditions
• Love the concept of species ascension
• Love the concept of ascension perks
• Love the concept of end game crisis
• Love the concept of becoming the crisis

The bad:

• the game is mostly 2D rather than 3d
• most planets end up being the same, with minor differences in focus.
• waaaaaay too much clicking! on a galaxy of 600 stars, we have to manually choose 100 stars or so to colonize, and often manually choose each mining/research station in each system. expanding a habitat is almost an eye test with a ton of clicks as well.
• There is rarely a reason to leave galaxy view.
• most interactions are through menus, and numerical representations.
• most content and game development is through text popups. E.g, anomalies, archelogy, rifts, events. It makes the game feel flat and lifeless
• leaders, while considerably improved compared to before, are no more than a min-maxing tool
• Some systems feel more of a nuisane than adding gameplaay value. E.g: connecting starbase trade routes.
• Diversity of choice is limited. it's always the same species traits availabe, always the same 8-10 traditions, same ~15 ascension perks. This leads to heavy mod usage to spice things up, which leads to imbalance and technical issues.
• combat is uninteresting and mostly comes down to "which fleet has more fleet power?". Ship designs make an impact but limited.
• ground combat is a nuisance, it never feels like enjoyable gameplay.

The ugly:

• Snowballing: in 99% of games, either I snowball and all other empires become "pathetic" compared to mine, or I get stomped and destroyed early game.
• Late game is tedious and requires too much micro-management
  • fleets are unmanageable. With fleet command cap, it's necessary to build 2-3 fleets and march them together, but that leads to having 12-15 fleets overall.
  • Having to occupy 100 systems to win a war is too much
  • Having to occupy 12-20 planets for each enemy empire is too much. If it's against a federation then even more.
• defense is too under powered. defensive starbases are good early/mid game, but become obsolete late game
• Diplomacy & vassalization is a nuisance. If another empire is "pathetic" compared to mine then they should just accept becoming a vassal, rather than me wasting time defeating their puny fleets and occupying every system they have 1 by 1.

Suggestions to take stellaris to the next level:

• the game needs more 3D
  • most text UIs or pop-ups could be replaced with 3D visuals
  • leaders should be 3d
  • council room should be 3d (with different room aesthetics, think CK3 holds)
  • galactic community should be 3d
• Leaders should be more personable.
  • live longer
  • far more impactful. Rather than needing 5-10 governors, let us have 1-2 councillors. One could be the "master of expansion" and another is "master of industry".
  • they should have a differentiating impact on the history of the empire
• make the game less "clicky"
• make late game more manageable. fewer fleets to manage, fewer systems and planets to occupy, fewer starbases to downgrade or upgrade
• Defense need to be more meaningful:
  • rather than having to occupy each system, each "constallation" should have its own "constallation capital system". If a fortress is present there then the enemy cannot move to the next constallation. If they defeat it then they don't need to occupy the other systems in that const.
  • every empire should have 2-4 choke points max. investing in defense there should be meaningful
• Combat:
  • remove fleet command cap. if I can sustain 3000 ships then i shouldn't have to split them into 15 fleets and manage each individually just because of fleet cap.
  • reduce number of fleets an empire can field overall. early game it should be 2, mid gme 3-4, late game no more than 5.
  • introduce fleet tradition/experience similar to character or army skill trees in other games. this would allow each game to feel different and each fleet to be meaningful
  • Overhaul ground combat.

I've spent a lot of time writing this and I don't even know if it'll be read or considered. If someone takes interest I'll be happy to share more.

 

[Jappa]

How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
It's not majorly important to me. I understand why it is there, but it does feel a little inauthentic for RP purposes. The idea that an entire billion people grow then all of a sudden start being productive is strange. And in terms of traits, I only hit auto-modding and then worry about traits that improve leaders or armies, or are essential to the RP.

If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
If there is a well structured and considered change to fleets, I would be ok with it. The current system works, but I don't feel like fleet design is a major element. The only annoyance is that federation fleets end up with an absolutely insane mix of ships with various tech levels. I would prefer if you can fix one design, but still let everyone build only those designs

What aspects are most important in defining your civilization?
Probably the RP. Even by mid game you can become post scarcity with a following wind, or you get absolutely battered by a midgame crisis and there is little in between. More realistically, my civilisations are built to hunt achievments more than think deeply about it. (Except my storm chasers empire, that was all RP)

How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
the goals I set are mostly achievment gets. Otherwise it's just survive, but it only feels like the galaxy can survive if I am custodian/federation president. I wish there was more capacity to play as a mid-tier power in an alliance. Give me the Australia RP.

How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?
I love the intent. But it is just annoying. As soon as I can build gateways, trade goes through them instead. The piracy spawning is nice, but your trade lanes not adapting to try and find a different way can be utterly crippling. If there was a way to let pirates blockade a system without impacting your economy absolutely it would feel nicer. Also, letting resources gathered by planets have to go back and forth to the capital would be a cooler version rather than this nebulous "trade value". Letting system or sector autonomy be rewarding rather then avoiding it being punative would be great. Playing a federalist vs. Republican system could be hella nice. Also, making the galactic market more about access to trade routes rather than just turning EC into resources could be fun. Either beef up trade or let it die.

Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?
by late game habatability is easy because you can stack modifiers so that everything but a tomb world is 100% and gaia world terraforming is for prestige more than practicality. Early game, habatability is a good system. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is definitely notable
Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?
No opinion

If you could remove one game system, what would it be?
Storms are pointless. They happen so often that it doesn't feel novel. And tracking them and getting planets to hunker down is not fun or really practical. The old space storms were better because they were rare but negligible. These ones are common and negligible. I want them to be rare but massive. Because a lightning storm will kick off every hour somewhere on earth. But truly destructive events are much rarer. The current system is more lightning storms, less hurricanes.

Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion?
Something about warfighting could be cool. Or maybe extra-galactic expansion as a new game plus mode would be pretty trick. But really, we are already oversaturated with expansions, with a lot of overlap between them.

Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
Megastructures just feel off. The smaller ones make sense (dyson swarm, arc furnace) but there is too big a leap up to the utopian megastuctures. Also, the arbitrary megastucture cap is just unnecessary. I am a post scarcity empire. Let me turn every single star into a dyson sphere or ring world. Get me that karsashev level 3 civilisation.


Just as a final point. I know the custodians are trying to prevent power creep in DLC. But utopia just feels like base game now. It feels kinda like it should be rolled in and utopia turned into something else (say a new game plus thing from above)
Synthetic dawn and machine age are different enough, differentiating between gestalt machines and individual machines. But the fact a machine ascended empire can't access virtuality e.t.c is kinda dumb. If I want to invest two acension perks to go from a biological noodle to a virtual powerhouse, please let me.

 

[lordkestrel]

Some examples to comment on could include:

• How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?

Not at all, change them to a flat number with a bonus to planetary output based upon deposits/buildings/whatever

• How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?

Not important in the least. Trade is a great way to make money, but even as a trade empire it's just a number you try to make bigger. Pirates are annoying but easy to deal with.

• Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?

Way too easy. I'd also change the techs that add a bonus to habitability, and make them instead unlock a building you can create to increase habitability on a given planet. Make us decide if we want buildings or habitability, only getting both if we terraform. Which should take longer and be a situation, allowing us to colonize the planet during terraforming to speed it up, giving up job output, pop happiness, etc.

• Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?

There are so many origins and civics now that they need a refactor. Origins should have an slot for planet history (unification, subterranean, shattered ring, etc), and a slot for unique mechanics (slingshot, primal, progenitor, etc).

Civics should also be split up to have a dedicated slot for diplomacy (inward perfection, purists, feudal, etc), a slot for government (shadow council, aristocrats, exalted priesthood), and then probably 3 or 4 generic slots.

 

[Arduunos]

I was dragging my feet because there's so much I want to say about every question, but I figure I should at least answer this one because it's my biggest gripe with the game going on about two years now. And to the surprise of no one who has interacted with me for five minutes it's habitats.

I hate the rework they got. I absolutely loved how they used to work. Void dweller was my most used origin by far. I have not done any void dweller runs (save one to try them out) or bothered building a single habitat outside of said run since the rework. I firmly believe the recent change to ai to stop spamming them was all they ever needed to address the pain points other people had with them, and I base this on the fact that said pain points persisted after the rework until said change was made.

I miss multiple habitats a system. I miss habitats being unique based on what you built them above. I miss habitats not caring about stellar geography beyond the previous point. I miss them being self sufficient and able to be built into whatever you needed them to be, at a price. I miss being able to just plop down a giant mansion for rp reasons. I miss building a bunch of habitats in an out of the way system to keep my precious biotrophies safe, at least on a species level. I miss the old void dweller origin flavor.

I know I'm almost certainly just shouting into the void here, but this is one primal scream session I sorely needed.

Not shouting into the void! I also deeply miss the way the old void dwellers played. Seconding this comment.

 

[Aendolin]

Answers to a few of your questions.

How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
I like pop systems, as it makes the world feel more alive and immersive. It's disappointing to me that CK3 chose to forgo a pop system.
I understand the performance issues it can cause late game, but I would be sad to see it go.

If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
The main change I would want to see is a reduction in the size of fleets, and more 'weight' to big ships like battleships. I want them to feel rare, expensive, and individual, so much that they could be named.

How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
I mainly just roleplay a peaceable Federation-like empire (I play the UNE a lot). I don't like starting wars, so I try to seed my games with aggressive empires that will attack me so I can justify their conquest

If you could remove one game system, what would it be? Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion? Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
The bad:

• Piracy. I hate having to tediously set up patrols to reduce it. If there was a button to 'auto suppress piracy', analogous to auto-explore, that would make me happy.
• The war system. I hate being locked in a war with no way to get out, or not being able to get other empires in. They should be more fluid in their actors, with empires joining and leaving much more readily.

My wants:

• Maybe internal politics? Part of me feels like this isn't the game for that, but it could work if implemented well.
• A ground combat rework would be killer!

 

[HFY]

If you could remove one game system, what would it be? Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion? Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?

I'm adding a second answer to this.

War. War needs changes.

- Let empires make "a separate peace" (at diplo cost with allies) to peace out of an ongoing war.
- When a target wants to negotiate the end of a war, send out invites and have a general negotiation for who gets what -- claims, reparations, non-consensual commerce & migration treaties, whatever. Spend your war score on stuff you want.
- Raid civic & AP might mean you can demand resources directly as part of a peace negotiation. Slaver civic & nihilistic AP might mean you can demand pops. Etc.

Total War needs some better rules about who owns a system, especially a joint Total War. I've had an ally declare a war (which I joined passively) and because the target was on the other side of one of my systems, I got everything he conquered. That's just crazy -- and would have been incredibly frustrating if it had happened the other way.

 

[Aendolin]

- Let empires make "a separate peace" (at diplo cost with allies) to peace out of an ongoing war.

Maybe also a cost of influence.

 

[smile444]

I hope i am not too late to take part in this

If you could remove one game system, what would it be? Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion? Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?

I would like a rework of the federation system. As it stands it is kind of underwhelming both as a tool for roleplay and as a way for small empires to band together against bigger ones. An idea that i saw that i like is that instead of fixed perks determined by the federation type it should work like the leader system where each level you get a choice between different perks chosen randomly based on both federation type and what the federation had experienced. Federation shouldn't need the diplomacy tradition to be made, instead it should be a technolgy that is weighted by having alliances with other empires, that picking the diplomacy tradition give a boost to obtain. The diplomacy tradition should instead be buffed, helping both maintaining control of a federation while reaping more advantages from being part of one. There should also be more levels, and if a galactic emperor is choosen there should be an option to leave the galactic empire to keep your federation.

I would definitly want some kind of DLC that focus on internal politics. Egalitarian democracies tend to be a little weak rn, using parlimentary system and trading it away once it is no longer useful being the best use of that kind of ethos and civics, it could be a good way to buff them by making it so unhappy-pops do cause some kind of opportunity cost, even if stability is high or they are slaves. Plus conqueror empires struggling to integrate conquered planets sounds like a much more interesting way to prevent wide snowballing than the current system of empire sprawl.

Also, i feel like Materialist should have the option to become psionics and go through the psionic ascention path. It makes no sense for them to not be able to access it when the shroud and psionic powers are observable phenomenon in the stellaris galaxy. It might however be a different take on psionics, based on their own wiew of the shroud, it's denyzens and psychic presences (souls)

I would buff habitats just a tad. I understand that they cannot be as good as regular planets for balance reasons. But it would be nice if they had a niche use that could be exploited to great efficiency. Maybe allow them to act as starbases? With orbital increasing the amount of modules and buildings? I am not saying allowing to build production-enhancing buildings like orbital rings do, but at least the standard starbase stuff. It would make habitats very valuable militarily, as they could act as starbases or anchorages. Or even as trade hubs

Also can you, finally, make starbase weapons loadout customizable? I'm tired of letting the dumb IA build my fortresses for me.


Finally...Operations, as they are, are kind of useless. The best use of the current spying mechanics is to get an idea of an empire's fleet power and composition, and maybe steal technologies although you kind of already need to be higher level technologically than your target to do that...There should be a way to get an operation advantage that's not reliant of tech.


How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?

While it is indeed fun, it tend to cause too many performances issues especially late game. Plus pop growth mechanics tend to favor wide empires a little too much. The impact of empire sprawl is also way to small to be of any impact. Other people made some calculations and found out that it only start to become an issue at insane numbers like 1000 pops in the empire.

How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?


Trade...I'd like to expand on trade. Maybe an entire DLC focused on it, like Federations did for...Well federations. We have a lot of options to focus on trade values, but very little to actually trade with other empires. There should be renewable monthly trades. Like right now you can set to trade x amount of y for 10 years and need to manually do the trade again. There should be an option to have it automatically asks you if you want to renew that trade at the end of the 10 years. There could also be a system or rare and luxury ressources. Maybe a way to get abundant motes, gases, or even things like artifacts, zro or dark matter, in special locations across the galaxy. The players automatically get one nearby. And we could build a system of trade routes to get the rare ressources of other empires. New rare or luxury ressources could be implemented specifically for such a system

 

[openly-retro]

What systems and content are “sacred” to you, which would make Stellaris not Stellaris anymore if we changed them?
I am a huge fan of machine empires and robot species. I would be really sad if these were fundamentally altered so that they are less distinct or mashed into one sort of general "bot" category. Also, a big standout item for me for this game is its rich modding capabilities and support. Lastly... i am not a fan of subscriptions at all and I'd be furious if the game changed to be online-only.

How important to you are the current systems that use individual Pops and Jobs in the planetary simulation?
Fairly important. There are a lot of fun things that can be done with mods and pops. I like pops as they represent the citizens of the empire. Seeing their portraits is immersive. Getting pops to work the jobs I want is (sometimes) a bit of a challenge. Worker / specialist strata are interesting but conceptually a lot of jobs are not more difficult than others so sometimes it does not make sense, for example that operating farm machinery and maintaining nutrient vats is "lower skill" than working as a smelter.

If we made significant changes to fleets, how much could we alter before it no longer felt like the game you love?
I like naming fleets, assigning leaders, giving the fleets basic orders. I am not attached to fleet composition, but I enjoy designing ships a LOT. I welcome changes that make fleets smaller and more impactful.

What aspects are most important in defining your civilization?
Being able to mix and match civics, origins, etc. Having lots of choics available is very important.

How do you set goals for yourself during gameplay? When do you set them, and how often do they change as you play?
Usually I start off with some combination of civics and an idea in mind, such as "wouldnt it be cool to have an entirely food-based Machine empire", or "How many mercenary enclaves can I end up with in a game". Other times I go back and practice a favorite playstyle like Void Dweller.
However, I am heavily influenced by what other empires are in the galaxy. If there's a FP or DE I usually have to change plans. Or if the other empires are warlike and try to invade me, then I have to respond to that.

How important is the current Trade system, with routes collecting back to your Capital?
It doesn't take up my attention as I'm mainly focused on the total output. I like to be able to use trade income for unity production. There's a mod out there that replaces trade routes with another mechanic that I think works very well. I do like shooting down pirates.

Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?
I wouldn't call it too easy. What bothers me about the habitability system is ideal worlds: Gaia planets and Ringworlds. Ideal worlds greatly interfere with roleplay and designing modded content -- for example if I design a machine species that evolved in a specialized environment, like some extremophile that can only live in some weird energy void, it totally breaks immersion to see them settled in for vacation on a Gaia world.
I would like to see organic pops having a Gaia world habitability modifier, as Machines have a Machine World hab modifier, and Ringworlds should not be habitable by default by any species, but habitable after a research project, at which time the empire can get a habitability modifier, with tech advances that make Ringworlds further habitable. or something along those lines.
There's a mod out there that has ringworld climates, I find that very compelling.
Also, if my founder species has 0% habitability on a planet, it feels not immersive to be able to colonize it. It's uninhabitable. I think a minimum of 10% habitability should be required to colonize, and then building slots and districts are going to be restricted based on habitability % also, and when I hit 75% habitability then all districts & building slots can be accessible normally.
I think there are great content options for making climate matter more. For example I'd like to see traits based on planet climate. And desert-based species having problems invading an ocean world, for example. Climate feels arbitrary, mostly, except for Ocean Paradise, and feels more like a thematic/roleplay element than something that has a variety of interesting related mechanics.
I understand climate to functionally be a limiter to an empire's expansion. It's a way to control the pace of the game. It's rich with content possibilities.

Are there any Origins that should be Civics, or Civics that should be Origins?
Ocean Paradise is a good example of an origin I love. Mechanist could be a civic. Generally I am fine with how things are.

If you could remove one game system, what would it be?
I wouldn't remove any. Even though a few systems add end-game lag, they are fun and add value. I see people suggesting to remove laggy systems and I think that's not a good reason to remove it. Please do fix the reasons why end-game lag occurs (ships, trade routes, pops)

Which system would you make the central focus of an expansion?
I would like to see an expansion adding several more shipsets, planet textures, alternate city backgrounds, alternate Machine World backgrounds, alternate planet environment noises, and more portrait classes (space narwhals, more non-humanoid lifeforms, etc) -- all in one so I feel like I'm getting a good amount of static value for the DLC. You could call it a big cosmetic pack. This type of expansion is not so controversial as it won't really affect gameplay (aside from art critics making noise).

Is there a feature you want to enjoy, but feel the current implementation doesn’t quite work for you?
Life after endgame crises. Blew up all the bad guys ... now what? why should I keep playing now that I've defeated the bad guys? I'd like some victory conditions and goals to work towards. Ways to win the game that don't involve going for points per se. Maybe game achievement awards given at the end of the game.. I would definitely like to see a comprehensive post-game report. Or even a way to see the report as the game is running.
Show empires with the most pops, the happiest pops, the most ships built, the fewest ships built, most ships destroyed, most systems taken, most peaceful empire, who made the most trades, who had the most slaves, most procreative empires (most pops born), most arc sites completed, most anomalies solved, things like that to reward the varied playstyles and different things that players do during the game to make it rewarding and worthwhile to do compulsory/obligatory/routine things.
Winning the game is not something I ever think about, actually.
When I think about long games that are rewarding to win in, I think of the Civilization series: science victories, cultural victories, etc. I like winning in those and I'm focused on it. I am not focused on winning in Stellaris as my "wins" are overcoming crises and not getting devoured by aggressive neighbors.
Implementing a science victory would be pretty straightforward: research projects and event chains leading towards things like "sending our progeny into the future via time dilation" or whatever civilizations want to work towards. Maybe multiple empires could cooperate.
Or, instead of ending the game on an empire's condition-based victory, these goals would add massively to victory points.. there are many ways to go with it.

 

[smile444]

• Is colonization too easy? Should habitability and planet climate matter more?

Mmmmh...It's a bit too easy. What if we took a different angle? Maybe each time we remove a blocker, it have a chance to trigger an event or a situation. Basically exploring planets could be as rewarding as exploring space.

 

[Anonim97]

Anecdote of the morning:
I was reading through the thread at the bus stop this morning and was so into it that missed my bus and was 20 minutes late to work. Whoops.

Looking at 21 pages of responses... That gotta be one of the most commented Dev Diaries in Stellaris, right?

 

[Eladrin]

I hope i am not too late to take part in this

Nope, we're reading everything. I'm thinking of keeping this dev diary pinned for a few weeks since the discussion is so active and helpful.

Looking at 21 pages of responses... That gotta be one of the most commented Dev Diaries in Stellaris, right?

It's definitely one of the higher ones.

I'm not commenting directly to the replies because I don't want to influence the discussion with my views (beyond what I already wrote in the dev diary), but this one is going down as one of the best dev diaries we've ever written.