Stellaris Dev Diary #376 - Announcing BioGenesis and Stellaris: Season 09

[Newbee53]

I am a little worried about the release schedule, though I also know so little about game design that I can't say that worry is rational. Hopefully when we see the next beta update the idea of getting 4.0 done before may isn't a huge stretch anymore.

I'm supper happy about the wilderness origin! hive minds really need the love.

Please, please tell me I can make my cyborg species with organic cyborg spaceships with this first update. Because that's going to be amazing if we can. I love the idea of both the species and technology melding together like that.

 

[Dayknight]

Man, new bio ships looks way cooler than that lame scourge ships! It actually looks like ships with bio technologies unlike lots of bio ships out there and I love it. Oh, I can't wait!

 

[ItThatAltersSanity]

• Psionic Auras: Let your Shroud influence shape entire star systems.

Speaking well in advance in the hopes this idea is picked up in some form: I want to distort an enemy star system on command (after some suit cost and/or charge-up) so my enemies remember I touched them with the Shroud. It's what I initially thought the Shroud storm would be in the storms DLC. Meager permanent modifiers to planets is nice but something more impactful (bonus points for visuals) to really hammer home "yes, that was me disrespecting your planet".

 

[Ker0]

Amazing line up of Expansions. Cant wait to check out all of this

 

[Tseudonym]

There are not enough words in the English language the describe how much I want you to shut up and take my money.

 

[tribnia]

So the shroud is filled with… beholders™ ?

 

[Dsingis]

Oh, so psionic ascension is not going to get the same huge treatment that Synthetic and Biological ascension get? As in, being the big feature of a big expansion, but only part of a smaller one in this season (Shadows of the Shroud)? Like Galactic Storms, or that Museum DLC? That is going to be disappointing a lot of people I think. I'd have rather seen the next big expansion be psionic themed. Like Machine Age, or now with Biogenesis.

 

[Ajacoba]

Another year with a terrible war system, no internal politics, no good diplomacy, and dead espionage.

diplomacy, war and espionage all work great
and there's a lot of events, origins and civics that simulate internal politics

 

[Foxosaur]

7 music tracks!? nice!

Biogenesis sounds awesome and so do the Infernals. Is there any expected relationship with this DLC and the Fruitful Partnership origin? I don't know enough clearly if there is any relevance but I liken the idea of nature (and the beings of Gaea) having something to do with many parts of this DLC ^^

 

[Calvax]

Oh, so psionic ascension is not going to get the same huge treatment that Synthetic and Biological ascension get? As in, being the big feature of a big expansion, but only part of a smaller one in this season (Shadows of the Shroud)? Like Galactic Storms, or that Museum DLC? That is going to be disappointing a lot of people I think. I'd have rather seen the next big expansion be psionic themed. Like Machine Age, or now with Biogenesis.

If you mean in terms of psionic not getting separate paths I think that makes sense given how the shroud works. Sounds like we’re getting a lot more customisation in the relationship between our pops, the shroud, and the entities that live there.

 

[Nyrael]

Oh, so psionic ascension is not going to get the same huge treatment that Synthetic and Biological ascension get? As in, being the big feature of a big expansion, but only part of a smaller one in this season (Shadows of the Shroud)? Like Galactic Storms, or that Museum DLC? That is going to be disappointing a lot of people I think. I'd have rather seen the next big expansion be psionic themed. Like Machine Age, or now with Biogenesis.

Psionic expansion seems to be entirely focused on Psionic Ascension, while Machine Age and Biogenesis were not (they both give features unrelated to the Ascensions, thus the higher price tag). In general, big expansions aren't more focused, they just give more variety of new features.
In other words, it shouldn't affect the Ascension Path itself. Due to the entire DLC being only focused on them, they might get more.

 

[Tunon]

I didn't expect we'd get Psionic and Bio Ascension rewamp all in one year, back to back at that!

Just looking at BioGenesis features alone it seems it will be on par with Machine Age in terms of content quantity and being able to combine(?) different Ascension Traditions looks peculiar, I wonder how it will work. Also, finally, finally some love for Hives! All that alongside with 4.0 changes? Wild.

Shadows of the Shroud looks great too, even the bare minimum of information we have now. People were not enthusiastic about the Shroud Mechanics for a while now, and seeing it getting a rework is great. Shroud Panel will probably be something like Astral Actions Panel, I am guessing, with a new resource and cooldowns. If it's the case, I only wish those new Shroud actions will be more consistently useful compared to the Astral Actions. Would End of the Cycle become the fully fledged (optional) End Game Crisis? What are the new government types? All very important questions, but personally, I want to know how the Zroni Storm Caster would be changed and would be there finally an option to create Psionic Storms, if we have Cosmic Storms enabled.

Then, a species pack with new colonizable planet type and new player Crisis? People will complain again, that the old species pack are lacking compared to the new ones, but, oh boy, if the Infernal Species Pack isn't looking rather spicy.

Can't wait for all that to go live!

 

[Obeliskkai]

I am astounded.

And if we factor in what I suspect you will be adding next year (given what you were asking for feedback on), Stellaris truly is fortifying it's place as THE sci-fi strategy game.

I think of a much younger me, playing the legendary Masters of Orion 2, who loved that game but wished there was 'more' to it. Stellaris in many ways is the game I dreamed of when playing that.

 

[Ajacoba]

Oh, so psionic ascension is not going to get the same huge treatment that Synthetic and Biological ascension get? As in, being the big feature of a big expansion, but only part of a smaller one in this season (Shadows of the Shroud)? Like Galactic Storms, or that Museum DLC? That is going to be disappointing a lot of people I think. I'd have rather seen the next big expansion be psionic themed. Like Machine Age, or now with Biogenesis.

i mean, psionic ascension already has 5 paths, which will all be updated

also neither synth ascension nor bio ascension are the main features of their DLCs
the real main features of those DLCs are the crisis stuff and the bio ships

and hey, at the very least psionic ascension will get more love than cybernetic XD

 

[Falrinn]

I was expecting some kind of updates to Biological and Psionic Ascension, but I'm pleasantly surprised that with Bio ascension is going all in and having multiple unique paths. Bioships are very welcome, and I hope we also get bioship skins for the civilian ships and starbases so there's at least a pathway to having a civilization with no artificial spaceflight whatsoever.

Also looks like my prediction of Volcanic Worlds coming with the Infernal pack was spot on.

I'm a little conflicted about sticking to the May 5th release date since that is predicated on 4.0 being ready in time.

Oh, so psionic ascension is not going to get the same huge treatment that Synthetic and Biological ascension get? As in, being the big feature of a big expansion, but only part of a smaller one in this season (Shadows of the Shroud)? Like Galactic Storms, or that Museum DLC? That is going to be disappointing a lot of people I think. I'd have rather seen the next big expansion be psionic themed. Like Machine Age, or now with Biogenesis.

I think in terms of the actual ascension path, the Psionics are going to get updates that are roughly as significant as the bio ascension is getting. It's just that they've opted to update it in ways that don't involve adding new tradition paths because that's not really how psionics work (you'd need one for every patron). The expansion might be leaner outside of the changes to psionics though.

 

[CGInglis]

MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS MEAT SHIPS

This guy gets it.

 

[ruhrbaron]

this is pretty much exactly what i expected from the season pass and i love it. im most excited for the mods that let me do an bio cyborg psionic empire because why the hell not. ehehehe. but bio ships! new authorities, finally a hive fallen empire! 4.0 and better performance. a megastructure focused on chokepoint defense! nice

I do hope you'll manage to sneak in a little update to the war system but all of this looks very promising

also, the big eye from the trailer, that's the colossus, isnt it?

 

[Navar]

I hope there are Tree ships along with Meat ships! Looking forward to these ascension paths, Purity sounds like it would fit one of my Empire's perfectly; I wonder how it interacts with Natural Design, or if they don't like eachother.

 

[OluapPlayer]

I really wasn't expecting two new player crisis paths. You guy have been cooking, I see.

Very excited!

 

[Wagner Joy Division]

Future awaits. What could go wrong