• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Stellaris Dev Diary #381 - Time to Get Wild

Hello there everyone, PDS_Iggy here! We’ve had a busy week, now let's see what Eladrin wanted me to talk about… The Hive Fallen Empire and the Wilderness origin? In the same diary?


Okay… Buckle up for a Wild ride!

Hive Fallen Empire​

For the first time since Synthetic Dawn, a new ancient will join us in the galaxy: a Hive Mind, once united in purpose, now lies fragmented. Each embodiment is stuck trying to execute its own directive. Each has plans for becoming the dominating force within their former collective… and you might be able to nudge who ends up in charge.
image11.png

Stellaris supports conference calls now?

After an uncertain but definitely horrible disaster splintered their consciousness, The Hive was left in 3 fragments: Growth, War, and Control. Each one with its distinct personality, system, and tasks. Though don’t let differences fool you. They are all in a federation with each other, and declaring war on one will see you fight all three.
image1.png

So different, yet refusing to be far apart.

This Fallen Empire will spawn surrounding a central system. Each of the fragments branches off with its own unique system. They all surround the central system, Last Thought, but refuse to claim it. Curious. Like most Fallen Empires, they are content seeing the universe pass by them by… unless you do something that interests or annoys them.

image4.png

Pretty reasonable imo

image9.png

No, you really can’t refuse

image10.png

I made some of these events work on AIs. Don’t worry about the fragment’s Traits.


Each fragment has multiple tasks, and each one is quite a bit more reactive than the old “Hey, give us your scientists” events from Fallen Empires in the past. So, make friends where you can and try not to unleash something horrible on the galaxy.
image6.png

This shipset had the working name of “Antagonist” in-house.

Something that has always distinguished Fallen Empires from regular empires is that their ships are extra advanced. Well, the same is true here, but instead of using the same old technology of the other Fallen Empires, the fragments use Biological Ones! A special, older, and more intimidating version of the Spinovore shipset.

Just like all other Fallen Empires, this will be your primary source for Dark Matter technology.


image13.png

Politics is an old species game.

When the sleepers awake, one must end up on top. Absorbing the other fragments, one of three awakened empires will form, each with different goals and behaviors. Two of them will be participating in the war in heaven, the third one has other plans. Here is Control.

Wilderness​

This, without a doubt, is the most transformative Origin we have ever added to the game. The Wilderness is a Hive Mind exclusive origin, requiring you to play with Biological Ships, and leaves behind mechanical buildings and nasty things like colony ships. The experience we want to bring you here is experiencing the galaxy as a living planet.
image5.png

How do you show in a tooltip that everything is different?

As you can see in the tooltip, and what I want to emphasize is that you don’t share a single base building or district with regular empires. You do have some overlap when it comes to civics and such, but in general, you will live as a planet.

image12.png

Greetings from Tellon
image8.png

Not an asphalted road as far as the planet can feel.

The Wilderness comes with a unique City Set and Diplomatic room; any empire can play with it, but it was made for the Wilderness. The avian-eyed among you might have spotted that we have a new resource icon up there, Biomass. Biomass is gained by growing new pops and is used for developing your planets and colonizing new ones. Since you are spending Biomass to grow buildings, we won’t expect you to have enough around to work them. That is why all Wilderness pops come with a +1000 Workforce modifier. Please don’t figure out some exploit to smuggle them out of the empire.

image2.png

Everything is used and reused in the Wilderness.
image7.png

The Wilderness does not need colony ships. If they can terraform it, they can become it.

Once you have relearned how to navigate the economy as a living planet, you can spread your spores outward, terraforming a new world by using Biomass, awakening a new colony in your image.

image3.png

Plant Houston, we have liftoff!

The Wilderness Origin is compatible with most civics available to hiveminds, but I managed to satisfy an edgy little primal part of myself when I designed the automatically generated names for the Devouring Swarm variant: the Blood Forest.

image14.png

People making reaction videos to these, please read them with the intensity and melodrama they deserve.

There is so much more we could show you about the Wilderness, the tradition swaps, the altered technologies, the many unique buildings, but at this point I would like you to find it out on your own!

Next Week​

Next week, it will finally be time to reveal our most primal secrets. Join @Cosmogone as he shares all our new civics and the Behemoth Fury crisis path!

Meanwhile, I have some Hive Minds to appease.
 
  • 109Love
  • 76Like
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2Haha
Reactions:
A non Wilderness empire invading an Wilderness planet will be faced with blockers instead of developed districts
If it reconquers those blockers, will they turn back into those districts?

If I'm all the species on the planet at once, how does picking traits and portraits work? Do you design and start with a bunch of different species, or do you make one that's supposed to represent the average?
I imagine that it is still just one species, representing the more sapient/intelligent drones of the hive mind.

When a Wilderness empire conquers a non-wilderness empire planet, what happens to the planet's population? Do they continue living on the planet?
I imagine it will be the same as when any other regular hive mind conquers pops.

Why would the FE care about what someone's doing with the primitive empires' little tea-table community?
The awakened empires are fond of subjugating the lesser species, and engaging in ideological conflicts with each other. The fact that the FE/AE system interacts with the subject and federation systems, but not the GC system, can simply be because the FE/AE system has not been substantially upgraded since the GC was added.

If there were Authoritarian and Egalitarian Fallen/Awakened Empires, they should actively engage with the GC as an expression of their respective ideologies. The Authoritarians because forming the Imperium would be the fastest and most efficient way to do so, and the Egalitarians because they would try to treat the younger species as "equals" in exchange for being recognised as "first among equals" (Custodian).
 
Last edited:
  • 10Like
Reactions:
In the Kodranitan systems, there are 3 systems that are cut off including the one with hostile ships. In all the Kodranitan governments, there are 6 spills, I think that this MAY have a meaning. (Or not until we are assimilated.)
 
I do have a question for the devs. If i go cosmogenesis as a empire with bio ships will i still get the "base" fallen empire ships or will i get the fallen empire bio ships? Would be counter productive for a bio empire since all their stuff requires food and the fallen empire ships cost alloys same for the mega needle.
 
The fact that the FE/AE system interacts with the subject and federation systems, but not the GC system, can simply be because the FE/AE system has not been substantially upgraded since the GC was added.
Fun fact! They don't interact with the Federation systems! Ever since the Federations update it is impossible to get a Guardians of the Galaxy AE to join or start a federation!
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
If we use bioship shipset, do we get the fallen hivemind bioships when we go down the route of cosmogensis?
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Why would the FE care about what someone's doing with the primitive empires' little tea-table community?
Because it's another Fallen Empire. Perhaps a rival for a War in Heaven. The Fallen Empires look down on the primitives, but the Xenophiles might take offense over a possible age-old rival imposing themselves on the primitives. Like how the Vorlons get involved every time the Shadows show up and start meddling in Babylon 5.
 
  • 8
Reactions:
Wondering if Prethoryn Crisis gets a lookover also. If anything did, it would. Could get some interest with the Kodranitan group. The mixes that could go in there are super-duper fascinating. Queen, Brood Mothers, Warriors, and Swarmlings seem like they're born for this, and if they aren't born for it, they can morph into it.

Quote from the stellaris wiki "For 15 years after the Prethoryn Scourge has been defeated, every year there is a 10% chance that, on a system with a previously infested planet, a Feral Prethoryn starbase and 3 Feral Prethoryn fleets will appear."
 
Last edited:
lol, space liechen or space shrubs dont sound very convincing :D ... i think it should be limited to wet worlds, or at least exclude deserts and arctic words.

Lichen would be tundra, not taiga.
Taiga is the northern boreal forest belt. Which holds about 18% of total worldwide biomass btw, so it is quite significant.
And those shrubs of the savannah are enough to feed the biggest land based animals, so I wouldn't discount them either.

What is true, however, is that tropical biomes have the highest biomass per square meter. A humid and warm planet should be able to support more biomass than a cold arid planet.

But..so what?
Why should a a sentient ecosystem only be possible on planets with extra high biomass?

You could argue that wilderness should get bonuses on humid planets (from a logical standpoint), but that's about it.
 
  • 6
  • 1Like
Reactions:
There is so much more we could show you about the Wilderness

Will there be special interactions with events that already deal with planet-mind beings? Such as Sea of Consciousness unique planet and anomaly Drops in the Ocean which depending on certain outcomes is revealed to be a planet spanning being.
 
  • 8Like
  • 2Love
Reactions:
Will there be special interactions with events that already deal with planet-mind beings? Such as Sea of Consciousness unique planet and anomaly Drops in the Ocean which depending on certain outcomes is revealed to be a planet spanning being.
Oooooo now that would be interesting, subsuming the sea of consciousness into the hive personality :)
 
  • 2
Reactions:
This feels like it's just begging for plant-based bioships. Hope those come sooner rather than later after the DLC drops
Just seems to me that if they move, and require vehicles to move in space like everything else, then they're simply not as different as they used to be when limited back on planets. If they move about, fight in action, and use similar tools to do so. They may have green hair still, but in all other systems they're animals.

I can see the interest in having a plant based shipset, but I don't see them being all that fascinating other than that.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
How will Wilderness empires interact with Relic Worlds and Ecumenopoli? And can they still build Habitats and other Megastructures?

Speaking of which, would bioship empires get special models for their megastructures, like a giant ribcage for an in-process Dyson Sphere?
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
How will Wilderness empires interact with Relic Worlds and Ecumenopoli? And can they still build Habitats and other Megastructures?

Speaking of which, would bioship empires get special models for their megastructures, like a giant ribcage for an in-process Dyson Sphere?
According to the livestream, Wilderness empires get MASSIVE habitability penalties on the described worlds, but can 'fix' them with terraforming tech. They aspire not to Hive Worlds, but to Gaia Worlds, and can take World Shaper.
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Oooooo now that would be interesting, subsuming the sea of consciousness into the hive personality :)
There are other possible interactions. Can you integrate Titanic Lifeforms into your hivemind? What about the Migrating Forests and living islands? Will the Wenkwort custodians be okay with your gardening efforts? What happens with pre-sapients?
 
  • 1
Reactions: