Stellaris Dev Diary #37 - Asimov Patch, part 2

[Dr. B]

My spouse just til me that I have to go start going to sleep before 02:00 or our relationship will not last forever :|

This new patch does not help.

 

[Duke Cross]

With the map modes. Can we get a mode that lets you select which type of colinizable planets you see? Ie I am looking for desert worlds have it so I do not have to wander around mousing over each world icon to see which one is a desert planet.

 

[Grog]

If I might be so humble as to ask for the excess food information to be put on the "surface" tab so I don't have to keep switching back and forth between the two. Thank you.

Better yet would be to combine planet summary and surface windows to one larger information panel as there is other useful information used between these two tabs. I HATE small information windows with multiple tabs. Paradox and their tiny window syndrome drives me insane. There is PLENTY of space for larger information windows with more information at a glance without tabs and scroll windows!!!!!!!

Thanks!

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

- Combat computers were changed from Aggressive and Defensive into Swarm and Bombardment computers, to better describe their roles. Ships with Swarm computers will move in closely and engage, similar to old combat behaviour, and have bonuses to damage, speed and evasion. Ships with Bombardment computers will advance into weapons range and then slowly drift towards the enemy until they have range with all of their weapons, and have bonuses to accuracy, fire speed and weapons range.

Why would bombardment ships continue drifting towards the enemy until they have range with all of their weapons after reaching bombardment range?

I've got a hard time understanding the rationale.

I can see some ship designs for which that makes sense, but those would be heavily armoured/shielded/protected ships designed to stand in the line of battle, so to speak, rather than being dedicated to bombardment.

I'd have thought that a proper standoff doctrine based around long-range weapons would actively attempt to maintain range, with shorter ranged offensive weapons and point defense used against enemies swift enough to close with the bombardment ships, rather than drifting closer until the weapons of last resort had targets too.

Perhaps a Swarm/Battleline/Standoff split would make better sense?

Map Modes

Here's one that would be really useful: STRATEGIC RESOURCES MAPMODE. Colour each system's map-area with the colour of strategic resource detected in it (striped in case there are several - is that even possible?), no colour if no strategic resource detected in the system.

Given that there's no handy list of rare resources detected in the galaxy, when you get the tech to unlock one of the strategic resources the only way to identify which systems just became strategically important due to having these resources by viewing ALL resources, fleets, etc. in the crowded galaxy map and trying to spot the odd ones. Sure, it is doable, but it is a remarkably silly exercise and a case of the interface letting down the player.

Another would be the ability to filter for types of colonizable planets.

Or just give us a list of discovered planets already on one of the function keys, with filters for colonization status, ownership, resources, distance, etc.). You know, the way that is done in most other 4X space games to give players a quick strategic overview that does not rely on a minigame of hunt-the-icon on the main map, when they can't find what they are looking for.

 

[DanteMorte]

are they going to release a fix for runtime error? I have to delete entire paradox interactive folder to play Stellaris.

 

[egill]

another map mode request

it would be great if you good select a galaxy map with only selected ship types highlighted e.g. construction or science ships

 

[TothAval]

Here's one that would be really useful: STRATEGIC RESOURCES MAPMODE. Colour each system's map-area with the colour of strategic resource detected in it (striped in case there are several - is that even possible?), no colour if no strategic resource detected in the system.

I am not sure about this, but i believe one of the devs said that strategic ressources will receive a major overhaul. I think the changes are meant to be in the Heinlein patch, but i am not sure. I would assume that a map mode would be part of the new system as well.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Why would bombardment ships continue drifting towards the enemy until they have range with all of their weapons after reaching bombardment range?

I've got a hard time understanding the rationale.

Presumably they're not in bomardment range until all their weapons are in range.

If you want them to be purely standoff combatants, just give them one weapon range.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Presumably they're not in bomardment range until all their weapons are in range.

If you want them to be purely standoff combatants, just give them one weapon range.

1. It is impossible to have all your weapons the same range for some ships*, unless a) you use only small weapons, and thus have the same short range for all your weapons, or b) you don't use long range weaponry in your largest slots but something with a range that small and medium slots can match, or c) you don't use all your weapon slots.
2. Even assuming that all your weapons do have the same range (e.g. corvette with small missiles in all slots), standing off and seeking to maintain distance while being in range is not the same as the bombardment Wiz described, which is moving closer until your weapons are in range, first actively, then by drift. The standoff I described seeks to maintain range and actively moves away from incoming enemies, the bombardment, as described by Wiz, does not.

EDIT:
* Corvette have largest slot possible medium, but largest possible in all slots small. Destroyers have largest possible large, largest possible in all slots small. Cruiser has largest slot large, but largest possible in all slots medium. Battleship is the only ship that has the same type both as largest slot and as largest possible in all slots. So for all except battleships, if you are going for the same range on all weapons and are using all your weapon slots, you are not using your longest ranged weaponry.

At the very least one has to hope that PDS has exempted the range of point-defense weapons from calculating desired combat distance. They probably have, as not doing so would be terribly silly.

 

[manoflife92]

Hi, i must ask you developers a question. is it possible to add something like a trade- sub-section on stations that generates small civilian trade ships, which in turn will travel betveen planets with stations, that also have the same trade-dock subsystem built on them, just like in Sins of a Solar Empire? that would be a interesting addition to the income method, and just like in the Sins, they could be attacked by pirates, enemy factions (even by you, should you find like some type of contraband or stow-aways from another empire on them.(especially with the borders closed from other that trade ships.))

 

[Kochtopfhelm]

I really would like to be able to deal not only with the factions in my empire but also in other (especially enemy) ones. Make it expensive and just the other way around as dealing with factions in your own empire. Add chances of discovery that affect your relations to said empire. I even would want to stage a coup d'etat at my slaving neighbors and put a tiny individualist faction in power (low chance of succes, horrible costs, nearly garanteed DoW if discovered). Or support a guy with slaver mandate at their elections and push his votes up a little (or down if the voters discover my involvement). Corrupt their leaders (half-price if they have xenos allowed and a guy of my species employed).

 

[Ventessel]

Glad to see the new features, especially scriptable mapmodes! More power to the modders!

As a thought on additional diplomatic incidents and ways to interact, I was playing MoO1 last week and was marveling at the subtle nuance of the border tensions in that game. You can have skirmishes, even attack outlying colonies sometimes without escalating to all out warfare.

Something that would be great would be for the relations that exist after initial contact (when the aliens are just known as "Gamma Aliens" etc) to stretch out until formal treaties are established.

For example, once you start talking to the aliens, that doesn't necessarily mean anything good or bad, just that you can now potentially form treaties. A border treaty limiting military ship movement would be an obvious step towards friendly relations, trade treaties would also help. However, if you want to antagonize a newly discovered neighbor, I don't think all out war should ensue immediately if are just picking off a few ships here and there. In MoO1 there was often antagonistic competition for new colonies that didn't necessarily escalate to all out warfare if neither side was willing to fight to the death, but rather opportunistically trying to assert control over a fringe area.

This kind of behavior could also really help to differentiate the AI personalities.

 

[Ratanka]

so u can force them to open borders, cause they are likly to be rivals right ?
i mean u still have open borders generelly if neutral in asimov ?
also for military ships ?

its so bad having this "religious guys" in the start event but one of the systems is in an enemy empire and i can never enter it with my military

 

[grommile]

I even would want to stage a coup d'etat at my slaving neighbors and put a tiny individualist faction in power (low chance of succes, horrible costs, nearly garanteed DoW if discovered). Or support a guy with slaver mandate at their elections and push his votes up a little (or down if the voters discover my involvement). Corrupt their leaders (half-price if they have xenos allowed and a guy of my species employed).

Well, that's one way to kill pickup MP games stone dead.

(I mean, I don't entirely understand people who play pickup MP in Paradox games anyway, but they exist.)

 

[Zhuljin]

Because it isn't programmed to do that.

well they should!! same as shuffle ur slaves around to be most effective PLZ FIX THIS or let the player do it himself without removing from sector

 

[Chaos_TLW]

Please tell me that if you've researched the tech to unlock the Slave Processing Facillity, that there'll be a way to forcibly convert Malcontent Slaves into Docile Slaves through cybernetic implants. Once you start implanting computers into people's brains, your slaves really shouldn't be capable of rebelling.

At least until the implants start malfunctioning. Or are sabotaged by the Abolitionists or some rival Democratic Crusader. Or some genius edgy teen hacker thinks its funny to release malware designed to infiltrate the hive mind-like slave-fi network and make them sing Christmas carols and accidentally messes up production in an entire planet. Or...

 

[Kriegs_]

Could the abandon planet war goal not be always purge? i mean, you can force them to relocate, no need in being so harsh

 

[Darkeus]

Making a space battle is nice but at the end of the day it get's you nothing. What about actually balancing the weapons? No one picks missles because PD's are OP. The bugs in the end game crises are a joke because they use "fighters" and missles and my stack 25% their size with PD's kill them all off.

So please balance ship types and ship weapons so all weapon types have a use.

In the beta patch notes they have done extensive balancing of weapons. It looks like PD was nerfed as the accuracy of it was dropped to 20% and Strike Craft have more in the swarm so more will get through.

 

[Dudemyster]

Could the abandon planet war goal not be always purge? i mean, you can force them to relocate, no need in being so harsh

Heretic.

 

[jju_57]

In the beta patch notes they have done extensive balancing of weapons. It looks like PD was nerfed as the accuracy of it was dropped to 20% and Strike Craft have more in the swarm so more will get through.

Yea I read them about 15 minutes ago. Good to know they took a serious look at it. And based on the notes it will be like a whole new game where who knows what if anything is the best choice.