Stellaris Dev Diary #364 - Sights Unseen

[gigabytemon]

A Psionic Age expansion would be something I would love to see! A psionic-focused expansion much like Machine Age, with advanced government types and empire-building choices.

Like, what if your psionics realize the Shroud ain't shit, and want to focus on creating their own living pantheon? Imagine a full council of "chosen", each empowered by the empire's collective population. This can lean into democratic government play, where faction type and approval correlates to the type and strength of bonuses that faction's champion gets/gives to the empire while on the council.

Also an overhaul of the Shroud would be awesome. Being able to contact each covenant, either to affirm or deny it, along with covenant-specific buildings that aren't just shrines, a la cybernetic faith origin's various faction buildings. You can lock in on a covenant to have those buildings give so much more + the covenant's full bonuses at the expense of every other covenant.

And let's not forget the End of the Cycle. Why not turn that into a full crisis ascension? We are now death, reapers of the End. Collecting the souls of the dead through purging and fleet destruction will advance our crisis levels and give us various boons from the End itself. Eventually you gain the ability to mark your worlds with Apocalyptic Beacons to boost their output and gain even more powerful boons from the End. At the final level, gather enough souls and you can perform a ritual that will open a rupture in the Shroud large enough to snuff out all life on those worlds, converting them into shrouded worlds and spawning powerful End Avatars. Every pop that dies is turned into a Soul of the Damned pop that is evenly spread out into every populated world outside of your empire, forcing your enemies into suffering the malus they inflict. Your fleets become dramatically more powerful, and it is time to feed the ever-hungering End for the last time.

Woof. The possibilities are endless.

 

[Colonel Bogey]

New player here with slightly less than 50 hours in but I'd like to add to wanting internal politics and trade to be given more depth. I've been running a huge surplus of minerals, so put them on the external market for the cheapest price possible and nobody was interested, presumably because they were all also producing minerals to a surplus.
Also, and there may be a valid reason for this, why can 'neutral' ships simply ignore the fact my borders are closed? Are they 'neutral' simply because I don't have communication with them? That shouldn't make me invisible to them IMO.
They rock on through right past a fully armed Star Port. Surely the Star Port should immediately engage?

 

[Cleaving3]

Come on, Slavery Rework!

 

[grommile]

I've been running a huge surplus of minerals, so put them on the external market for the cheapest price possible and nobody was interested, presumably because they were all also producing minerals to a surplus.

I mean, from an aesthetic standpoint, basic resources probably should be available in plentiful quantity to every interstellar civilization.

 

[Colonel Bogey]

I mean, from an aesthetic standpoint, basic resources probably should be available in plentiful quantity to every interstellar civilization.

Admittedly I'm new and there's a lot I haven't worked out yet. Such as a planet having mineral deficiencies but my Civilisation not. I'm guessing there's either levers I need to pull or planets just contribute upwards. Probably not the thread for this discussion though!

 

[Yamez]

My first desire for next year's content would be internal politics and espionage overhaul. Both have great potential with some groundwork already laid in the stellaris universe.

The addition of espionage was a great idea, but didn't turn out in its current form for various reasons. Instead of fixing how it could hamper people's economies or military forces in the galaxy and requiring an envoy (too high an opportunity cost), I think it should be removed as an envoy assignment for each empire and made into it's own, new side panel with spies (equivalent to envoys but only for espionage). In this panel you'd run a set number of operations up to your spy limit (3 base like envoys, except xenophobes get more as they are opposite xenophile), and you would choose an empire to run the operation on. This could still be your standard list of operations already in the game, or new ones could be made. Effects from the operations should have some counterplay. For example, failure alerts the affected empire (who can option to try to stop the operation), success leaves traces as a new situation for the empire to investigate with their own spy (or dismiss), and perfect success means you get away with it. Criminal syndicate could get bonuses to spies on worlds with their branch offices and/or have other options with spies.

Internal politics seems like a playground for ideas. Lot of potential here to earn unity, affect elections, modify ethics attraction, create situations, etc. I'm not sure my vision for it is as clear as espionage, but it should definitely receive some focus. I think gestalts should get something out of it too, even if its as small as deviance creating internal conflict and subtracting unity.

Espionage could affect internal politics too. Send a spy to increase one of their ethics attraction (like gospel of the masses building) or improve a leader's odds in the next election. Nothing should be forced upon a player, but tipping the scales on societal ethics seems like it could be interesting for a "culture" win roleplay. And perhaps there are other ideas here.

Lastly, y'all have been the best developers of the last 5 years for me. Stellaris has really blossomed and continued to improve. I know I can trust you, and thank you!

 

[Sniper115]

Last time i posted i complained about the Juggernaut shipyards and how i want a deactivate shipyard button. I still want a deactivate shipyard button. Im still tired of reinforcing a fleet, and it only queues up 20 ships to the mega shipyard and then 20 more at the Juggernaut. It would also be nice to upgrade fleets at shipyards on the fringes of my territory but not have it build ships since theyd lose out of starting xp and reduced build time and cost from my main shipyards. I also want more creator events like when Aspec and the Divine Imperium surrendered a war to Doug the Janitor and changed into a democracy. Or how you guys set up the dead vs the living one.

 

[DesertKyote]

All I will ask is that those of us who have no interest in micromanaging populations and their jobs/factions/daily lives not be lost in the dust. If I wanted to micromanage a planet I can just play multiple instances of SimCity 2000, tbh. I just don't have the brain space for making sure all the blorbos are happy and keep up with all the stuff that can be going on at any given time, like making sure my fleets are up to snuff and whatever shenanigans my science ships are getting up to.

 

[Swarm lover]

Hello again, Stellaris Community!

Last week we looked back at where we’ve been, and today we’re going to look at possible themes I think we might explore in the future. Like the past few dev diaries, this is one where we’re actively soliciting your thoughts.

If you haven’t had a chance to add your bit of feedback to The Vision, you still have a couple of days left - it’s going to stay active until the end of November.

Today is the 3.14.1592 release day, so before we get to the main diary I’ll start with the final release notes.

3.14.1592 Release Notes​

The 3.14.1592 patch addressed the following issues - I’ve bolded new additions (all under Bugfixes) since last week’s diary:

Spoiler: 3.14.1592 “Circinus” Release Notes

Balance​

• Add energy activation cost to Propagandosphere
• Cloaking strength on Camouflage mutations are now consistent throughout sizes
• Give -15% cloning cost and -10% fauna upkeep to Beastmasters civics
• Reduce Space Fauna cloning cost by 10%
• Reduce Space Fauna energy upkeep by 25%
• Remove minor artifacts production from Decentralized Research edict
• Rework Mutated Voidworms fleets content and scaling, aligning them similar to Prethoryn Brood Queen fleets

Bugfix​

• Clone Soldier Ascendants can now cyberize
• Fix to AI machine empires spawning as Despicable Neutrals without The Machine Age
• Necrophages no longer create an endless series of replacement pops when purging on the Synaptic Lathe
• Accelerate juveniles animation speed
• Added Insider Trading and Trade Focus traits to each other's opposites block to stop them appearing together since they almost cancel each other out.
• Added Orbital Ring variants for Beastport/Hatchery/Vivarium descriptions in all supported languages
• Civics added in Grand Archive can now be swapped from the regular to corporate version and vice versa
• Clarified the texts of the Cultivated Worldscaping decision and planet modifier
• Deleting a design now keeps you in current designer type
• Enclaves and Marauders satisfy Xenoist Contact Demand
• Extreme Contortionist DNA now gives rare crystals instead of motes to be more consistent with the event that gives it
• Fix an issue where Cognitive Node should be selected by the Leader Infected event
• Fix blocked Tiyanki Graveyard event chain when capturing them
• Fix Boarding Cables capturing literally anything - thanks for the fun screenshots
• Fix Breeding Status displayed in view that was not always correct
• Fix Fossilized Endoskeleton specimen localization
• Fix Mercenary Enclave Stations unable to build ships
• Fix Cloaked Patternwalker missing string
• Fix scoped localizations for Memorial For Bubbles specimen
• Fixed an unlocalized string showing up when you tried to return starbases at times. Also added linebreaks to the same tooltip.
• Fixed recommended DLC tooltips in multiplayer
• Fixes a bug with too wide portrait on Empire Design Selection View
• FX for ship auras are now displayed
• Improve Cordyceptic Drones fauna damage modifier text in tooltip to make it clearer what it exactly affects
• Life Tree Protectors now don't move away from their system
• Lost colony parents using Sol as their system will no longer spawn two Siriuses if the guaranteed habitable worlds slider is set to 1.
• Mutated Voidworms fleets now don't use naval capacity
• Mutated Voidworms now don't show they can upgrade anymore
• Orbital Assembly Complex holding now correctly boost Beastport and Hatchery on Orbital Ring
• Precursors can no longer be discovered on Astral Scars
• Prevent duplicate specimens from being found in the same empire
• Removed the unused h_dna string
• Stop showing upkeep part of message when leader upkeep is zero in hire leader confirmation dialog
• The Diplomacy Tradition Finisher now properly refers to Officials and not Envoys.
• Voidworms now stop bombarding if the Immunity technology is researched (before crisis)
• Worm-Riddled Gate is now correctly accessible if Voidworms are captured instead of killed

AI​

• AI won't build infinite science ships when trying to build frigates anymore
• Fix AI that was not willing to build Shipyards

Stability​

• Fix a crash when a tooltip references the concept of a tradition that doesn't exist
• Fix crash when Voidworms try to act on empty fleets
• Fix OOS when riftworld station is built
• Fix saves affected by the crash when an AI without a Grand Archive tries to capture a Space Fauna
• Fix Voidworms CTD
• Fixed issue with resolving the user home dir on linux that leads to CTD

Unless critical bugs in need of a hotfix arise, this will be the last planned Stellaris release of 2024. I want to avoid potentially destabilizing the game just before the winter holidays.

Now, on to the main dev diary.

Infinite Frontiers​

Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at the basic vision of Stellaris and discussed how Stellaris has changed over the years.

This week I want to talk about things we potentially might want to explore in the future.

This is not intended to read as a timeline or a list of promises, but an open discussion about things I consider possibilities and why.​

Biological and Psionic Ascension
First things first, I strongly believe that remastering the remaining Ascension Paths is a top priority. The Machine Age dramatically improved Cybernetic and Synthetic Ascensions, and gave machine empires proper ascension choices, but left the others behind. Biological Ascension isn’t in a good state right now mechanically or as an overall experience. Psionic Ascension is better off as it is affected tangentially by most content releases, but is a bit too reliant on random events and luck. Both of these Ascension Paths will be revamped, though since they are very distinct from one another, I intend on having them focused on in two separate releases.

Warfare and War Resolution
At some point in the future, I’d like to see us revisit war and war resolution, and enable more of the scenarios that occur in the “Stellaris Cinematic Universe” of our trailers. When the Gamma Aliens attacked the UNE colony of Europa VII, the Commonwealth of Man did not wait patiently for an invitation to war before summoning the Apocalypse. Humanity was threatened, and they acted. More fluid rules around joining and leaving wars are needed, and betrayal is not supported to my satisfaction. (Secret Fealty exists, but I don’t find it enough in its current state - other mechanics currently prevent them from seizing the chance for freedom at what would be the most opportune moments.)

Biological Ships
While rearing and mutating space fauna was added to Stellaris in the Grand Archive story pack, I feel that it’s not the same fantasy as true bioships. These are vessels that your people grow and fly around in, or that have more symbiotic relationships with their pilots. I think those systems would probably pair nicely alongside Biological Ascension.

Factions and Politics
Governments in Stellaris may hold a grudge against you for centuries for your atrocities but pops and factions are very quick to forgive and forget. There are no revanchist or irredentist factions that make trouble when borders change, nor variety within the factions themselves. I’d also like to see factions have their own tenets and goals and different ways that you can deal with them. There have been a lot of calls for an “internal politics” expansion, but I think that it would really be politics and culture in general, affecting both your empires and those around you.

If we were to do something along those lines, I’d also want to add some variant of factions to Gestalt empires - maybe Instincts for Hives that grow more dominant based on your behavior or Directives that compete for priority in Machine Intelligences. They’d have to feel different from individualistic factions, however. Among individualistic factions, I could see the tenets of an Egalitarian faction from a Shared Burdens empire being very different from the Egalitarian faction in a non-Worker Coop MegaCorp, and these tenets might also be used to define the beliefs of your Spiritualist factions. I’d certainly want to explore spreading my factions into other empires.

Espionage
Espionage is a related system that isn’t satisfying its promise currently, as Mr. Cosmogone reminds me during every design meeting.

It’s difficult to keep track of spy networks, is generally of low impact, and has no real counterplay. But he’s got schemes.

Playable Nomads
Finding different ways of playing the game can be popular - landless adventuring in Crusader Kings III, for example, makes me wonder what we could do with nomadic fleets in Stellaris. The key questions there end up being “why are they nomadic”, and “how do they interact with more standard empires”. Origins could also be opportunities to “table flip” the normal economic or political models of Stellaris.

Pirates and Crime
Space Piracy is a popular fantasy - we touched on it a bit with the Treasure Hunters origin in Grand Archive, but they could mesh well with the Nomads idea mentioned earlier or even a factional political expansion. Crime and Deviancy aren’t terribly engaging systems at the moment either, and might benefit from wider examination.

Species Packs
When it comes to species, I could see us examining what kinds of life could arise on molten or frozen worlds, much like we did with Toxoids. Like Toxoids, they’d likely need some restrictions on what they can do with those worlds (as they’re 10x more abundant than normal habitable worlds), but they’d be interesting to explore. Players often ask for gaseous or energy creatures - the first are already represented to an extent by the Dathnak and the latter by the Unbidden. I feel that energy beings may go too far into fantasy “elementals”, so I’d like to stay away from them if possible. Expanding the existing species phenotypes could also potentially be interesting - Plantoids II, for example.

Scenarios
“Scenarios” are another proposal that I’ve seen a number of times over the years - would it be interesting to have scripted game modes with custom rules, and events already in motion?

They could lean hard into already established universes with asymmetric starts. Perhaps the game starts off with communications from a Xenophile empire that tells you, Pre-FTL Earth:

View attachment 1221982
Hacked together example. Not anything real.​

A system like this could allow for challenges or narratives that can be completed in a relatively short play session compared to a standard Stellaris campaign, or could otherwise completely change the pace or nature of the game. It could also be used to craft competitive experiences - at past PDXCons we’ve featured mods like Survival: Necroid Invasion or Ark of Ascension - I could see things like that fitting into the system.

Alternate game modes tend to be fairly binary though - they’re either not used very much, or they’re incredibly popular - not much in between. What kinds of things would you want to see in these sorts of game modes, if anything?

So What Did I Miss?​

This was a bit of a stream of consciousness dev diary, so I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of possibilities.

What do you think I missed? Are any of these especially attractive or repellent? Where do you want us to go?

Next Week​

Next week we’ll be reacting to your responses to this one.

The days are getting shorter and the snows are starting here in Stockholm, so I expect I’ll keep this one pinned for the next two weeks.

See you next week!

Purchase Stellaris: Grand Archive alone or with a discount as part of Stellaris: Season 08!​

So overall really excited to see more based one what im seeing

1) I do agree that bioligical and psionic need to be brought to the same level as Synthetic and cyborg, although like you said bioligical really needs it a lot more but the huge rng of the psionic makes it annoying.

2) For warfare i really agree, the system is better than what it was before but still need improvements. Makes little sense for me as a fanatic xenophile to not be able to join wars if for example one side is a fanatic purifier or genocidal empire. Betrayal being a possibility could be huge im excited.

3) Def want full biological ships or nastier options for bio beasts.

4) For factions and politics I fully agree that the pops are way too passive. Like one case i recall i saved a species from being genocided by a FP by declaring war. Sadly only the pops on the homeworld were saved in time. When i won that world the genociders and the victims were just living happily side by side despite what just happened. Heck the former genocidal pops were way too cooperative. Theres even one precursor where they describe a station failing due to internal species conflict. Honestly hoping for maybe some kind of "species reputation" type system. Genuinely unique and meaningful factions is something i def look forward to, i like the idea for gestalt hive minds.
Honestly hoping that pops are gonna cause more trouble or their faction/association coming into play, stuff like maybe they part of some religion or belief shared by neighboring empire maybe the pops from thazt empire might clamour to help their fellows if they are attacked. Crusader kings 3 does this pretty well especially with causing issues in mass conquest due to the peasant uprisings. Sure they aint game ending or anything but can distract you at an important moment.

5) Espionage def needs a full overhaul. Only thing im a tad bit worried about is if leader assassination becomes a thing having your chosen one get sniped aint gonna feel good.

6) Nothing more to add, maybe piracy could be a problem for large empires while less of an issue for smaller ones.

7) Maybe energy beings shouldnt be a "right at the start" kind of thing but i definitely feel like they should be something you can aspire to get to for psionics.

8) The idea behind scenarios sounds good but would need to see something concrete to say for sure.

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

If I had to list my priorities for Stellaris...

1) Give Psionic and especially Genetic Ascension some love. They're far behind Cybernetic and Synthetic to the point that it's blatant.

2) Rework Trade and Piracy. Currently each system produces Trade and sends it to your Capital. I'd like to see us have more "control" on Trade Routes such that exploring Wormholes doesn't cause Trade income to plummet because they inexplicably shift the route through said Wormhole where your Starbases and their Trade Protection cannot protect it, causing Piracy and Pirate fleets to form. Not only do I hate that when it occurs, the current Trade System is kind of archaic and doesn't make much sense to me.

Instead, I'd like to see more use of Civilian Ships. Right now, all we have are Colonization Ships, Construction Ships and Exploration/Science Ships as options. I'd like to see Freighter Class ships where their sole purpose is to conduct Trade amongst your various Colonies via Trade Routes. The more Trade a planet produces will require more Civilian Ship traffic to cash in on the Economic activity as opposed to being produced out of thin air right now. As Civilian Ships travel said routes, they will have to be protected from Pirates via Starbases(and various Outfits such as Hangars) but Starbases won't deter everyone and hence a Military Escort will eventually be required. Military ships will reduce the threat of Piracy and will engage Pirates should they spawn.

Trader Ships would have a far bigger impact when it comes to Foreign Trade or Empire-Empire Trade. Commercial Pacts would stipulate where Ships from said Empire can go and could include Military Escort if you want to pay your Trade partner for the service(or vice versa if you want to attract business).

3) 100% Faction approval should be possible w/o Democracy. Some Factions top out around 80 approval, although can go higher on a temporary basis if certain conditions are met. I'd like to see this increased to at least 100% so that we can maximize the amount of Unity generated from Factions. Democracy Government's perk should be a luxury and not a necessity to hit this mark.

4) Buff of under-utilized Civics. Some Civics could use another look(Shared Burdens and Mining Guilds are one I'd like to highlight).

5) Fixing Bugs and Streamlining the game. It's no secret this game can definitely use more polish and honestly when you have so many DLC's that it's approaching $400 for everything before bundle discounts/sales, you might need to explore fixing/balancing what you got already as opposed to creating new content.

*Edit* One more thing. I would kill for some variety when it comes to Titan Hulls. Right now, we're basically locked into one variant consisting of a T-Slot Bow, 4 L-Slot Core and 2 L-Slot Stern. I would really like to see Hangar(H-Slot), Torpedo(G-Slot) and Missiles or Disruptors(M-Slot) added so that we can create Titans that can add some unique flavor.

 

[Entomon]

An espionage operation that allows hiveminds to covertly put armies on another empires planet and when it's time to go to war and invade the planet have the armies attack

 

[Z0197]

Hi I was one of those people advocating for an extradimensionals species pack! I totally understand not making them an option for empire creation because they play too hard into the fantasy realm. But I would still like for there to be a way for players to play as them without jumping through many hoops with the Formless. Perhaps as part of a psionic ascension revamp empires could ascend partially into the shroud and gain the extradimensional trait (and accompanying awesome species portrait.) In either case I'm very excited to see genetic and psionic ascension getting some love because they do feel pretty far behind the synthetic options right now.

 

[Adrius au Augustus]

More fluid rules around joining and leaving wars...

Could you please update First Contact Wars?

The current system almost always results in the enemy establishing comms before we can take their planets (a victory in the early game),
then our fleets go missing for years, making it a frustrating experience.

---

When first contact is finished, if there has been a state of war before, the attacker could get a window where,
based on ethics, war stance, etc they can a) change their approach b) continue the war.

Examples:

1. 'Selective Kinship' civic offers a relatively soft penalty for war for both parties if the parties are the same species class and the attacker makes peace
2. Shared ethos of xenophobia makes peace unavailable

---

If the war system is changed, maybe we could get the warfare mechanic with unknown opponents, so the war icon on the top right features the '?' icon / 'unknown empire' (or e.g 'Lambda Aliens'), type of war is "First Contact War" or 'Preemtive' for some ethoses. This way, when comms are established, there is no need to add a huge if-else tree to that feature.

(Also, before first contact, starbases regularly repair themselves and continue to fight, which feels unfair.)

Thanks for the update!

 

[Egon Duval]

The biggest thing I want to see as far as an update relating to Piracy is the addition of a ship pack for Pirate Themed Ships

 

[TheArid]

Could the improved inner-politics (like factions and political pops) lead to more intricate diplomatic decisions between empires? Right now most of them are very basic. Adding lots of various agreements and options would make everything way more interesting, and you could get a deeply connects political map with intricate deals and agreements. And maybe also a feature to merge two federations? Where if your leader of a federation you could get access to federation agreements where you can reach out to another federation leader and propose a merging. Following this could come a long merging event/situation where empires have to agree on the new federation, or decide to leave this new mega-fed. Could cause tension. Because way to often the galaxy becomes split between two federations that have equal ethics and are friends otherwise but can’t really work together due to them just being on opposite sides even though it would make sense for them to cooperate.

This would be great

 

[Joseph123Dan]

Little late but to me, the most is psionic expansion and internal politics and culture expansion

 

[passeris]

Since it was brought up, I'd be really interested in more species packs.

I think any life on a molten world would necessarily be silicon-based Lithoids*, so maybe those are already covered and their habitability requirements should be tuned to make their playstyle and niche more unique. Perhaps a few extra portraits to keep us happy, heh heh.

*My reasoning is that when silicon reacts with oxygen the product is dense enough to remain on the surface and partake in further reactions, whereas when carbon reacts with oxygen it becomes less dense and disappears into the atmosphere. Underground carbon deposits on Earth are exclusively the result of carbon-based organisms being preserved in low-oxygen conditions.

Frozen worlds, I guess we'd be talking subsurface oceans like Europa, otherwise there is insufficient energy for reactions to take place. Such lifeforms probably wouldn't be very different from those found in Earth's deep oceans, with the exception of differing biochemistries. This is a less interesting proposition, but we could get some nice Aquatics portraits out of it nonetheless.

I'd love to see more overtly 'alien' morphologies represented, and am always a little disappointed by the prevalence of bipedal humanoids. There is a mod on Steam called Alien Suns which adds a bunch of bizarre, beautiful (and decidedly alien) hand-painted portraits. The artist was interested in getting them animated, unfortunately he no longer wishes to update the mod and it stopped working with 3.12. I wonder if, with the agreement of all parties involved, it could be developed into an official species pack?

My other interests would be Saurians (intelligent dinosaurs, kind of like Avian_normal_07), artificial lifeforms clearly created (or uplifted) by ancient aliens, perhaps more themed packs to follow the 'Cuties' (Brutes, Horrors, Angels etc)... really I could go on. Thank you for listening and taking feedback, at least.

 

[BlackyNoir]

Scenarios
“Scenarios” are another proposal that I’ve seen a number of times over the years - would it be interesting to have scripted game modes with custom rules, and events already in motion?

To me, that's a huge NO. I have zero interest in it, and I'm actively against it.

I feel it's a waste of production time and budget. Those types of things are always more gadget like, lacking depth, are too narrow. A tiny portion of player would play it once, then come back to the main game. Any time or money spent on these would be, imho, better spent on core systems and simulation.

Let deep systemic emergent gameplay tell the story, instead of whatever simplistic binary scripted thing say we do.

Plus, I'm assuming it's going to be a nightmare to keep up-to-date with future patches and DLC. Again, lots of money and time better spent on core systems.

A better approach to variety would be very different ways to play the actual current games. Akin to what Crusader Kings did with landless adventurers; same game, different way to play it. But it synergize nicely with the core game (landed ruler can become landless and vice versa).