Hi folks!

The topic of the week in this series of dev diaries for Stellaris is what sets empires and species apart from each other. Most obviously, of course, they look different! We have created a great many (ca 100) unique, animated portraits for the weird and wonderful races you will encounter as you explore the galaxy. These portraits are mostly gameplay agnostic, although we have sorted them into six broad classes (Mammalian, Arthropoid, Avian, Reptilian, Molluscoid or Fungoid) which affect the names of their ships and colonies, for example. To give additional visual variety, their clothes may sometimes vary, and when you open diplomatic communications with them the room they are standing in will appear different depending on their guiding Ethos.

Speaking of Ethos, this is no doubt the most defining feature of a space empire; it affects the behavior of AI empires, likely technologies, available policies and edicts, valid government types, the opinions of other empires, and - perhaps most importantly - it provides the fuel for internal strife in large and diverse empires. When you create an empire at the start of a new game, you get to invest three points into the various ethics (you can invest two of the points into the same ethic, making you a fanatic.)

Collectivist - Individualist
Xenophobe - Xenophile
Militarist - Pacifist
Materialist - Spiritualist

Your Ethos will limit your valid selection of government types, but there are always at least three to choose from; an oligarchy of some kind, a democracy or a monarchy. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, in monarchies there are no elections, and you do not get to choose your successor when your ruler dies (except in Military Dictatorships), and if you die without an heir, all Factions in the empire will gain strength (oh, and there may be Pretender factions in monarchies...) On the other hand, each ruler may build a special "prestige object" in his or her lifetime, named after themselves. For example, military dictators can build a bigger, badder ship, and Divine Mandate monarchs can build a grand Mausoleum on a planet tile. Of course, both ethics and government types usually also have direct effects on the empire.

Keep in mind, though, that there is a clear difference between the empire you are playing and its founding race. Empires and individual population units ("Pops") have an Ethos, but a species as a whole does not. Instead, what defines a species is simply its initial name, home planet class, and portrait (and possibly certain backstory facts.) Each race also starts out with a number of genetic Traits. As with the empire Ethos, you get to spend points to invest in Traits when you create your founding species at the start of a new game.

It is natural for individual Pops to diverge in their Ethics, especially if they do not live in the core region of your empire. This has far reaching consequences for the internal dynamics of empires; how Pops react to your actions, and the creation and management of Factions, etc (more on that in a much later dev diary!) Traits are not as dynamic as ethics, but even they can change (or be changed - this is also something we will speak of more at a later date...)

The traits and ethics of individual Pops of course also affect their happiness in various environments and situations. Naturally, they cannot even live on planets that are totally anathema to them…

That's all for now. Next Week: Leaders and Rulers!

 

[keytium]

What happens if you try to invest 0 points into the ethics categories? Or do you have to invest some / all of the points that you have?

I want to play as an extremely moderate state! Seriously, though this is a good question.

 

[Chief of Staff]

What happens if you try to invest 0 points into the ethics categories? Or do you have to invest some / all of the points that you have?

Finished button (shown in second screenshot) would probably be greyed out unless you actually invested at least one point or more. But that's actually a good question, though.

 

[Lord_Asmodeus]

Ah of course, the Neutrals approach

 

[Axe99]

My word, this looks good - soooo goooood . The variety and choice at the start, the potential for things to develop organically as the game goes on...... keep doing what you're doing, Team Stellaris .

 

[AndreasPhokas]

obviously we need space Byzantium.

 

[Chief of Staff]

obviously we need space Byzantium.

Heh. You know, this brings up the question... will all homeworlds be united at start of the game or will we have some worlds that are home to different sovereign states launching their own colonization, i.e. having American and Russian colonies in Solar System and nearby? I imagine for the simplicity's sake, Paradox will probably have all species starting out with united homeworld. It's probably easier to just do world government. For all we know, in future, United Nations could take over all colonization efforts while nations have to contend with each other back home at Earth.

 

[AndreasPhokas]

Heh. You know, this brings up the question... will all homeworlds be united at start of the game or will we have some worlds that are home to different sovereign states launching their own colonization, i.e. having American and Russian colonies in Solar System and nearby? I imagine for the simplicity's sake, Paradox will probably have all species starting out with united homeworld. It's probably easier to just do world government. For all we know, in future, United Nations could take over all colonization efforts while nations have to contend with each other back home at Earth.

with the amount of world conquest byzantiums we can send the autokrator's rule to the living stars.

 

[aitaituo]

We also have no examples of alien governments/economies; it's certainly possible to imagine a species with different mores/beliefs/hardwired behaviors emerging as a communitarian democracy, even if you believe such a thing to be impossible for humans.

While saying "Chinese democracy" with or without context is a good way to get a laugh out of a crowd, the Chinese Communist Party has at least nominally held democratic elections as a core tenet in both theory and practice since 1940 when Mao introduced his philosophy of New Democracy. While pretty much everyone else in the world has scoffed, the reasoning goes that the Local People's Congresses are freely elected and then in turn elect the higher representatives as the voice of their own constituents and with the full support of the individual voters, no matter what each individual would have voted for given the opportunity to do so.

I forget the catchy four character slogan Mao used during the civil war, but it was something like "vigorous dissent, unified action." The idea being that as a collectivist democracy, each voter or representative was supposed to fight for their own position or the position of their constituency as strenuously as possible, but once a vote was held it was their duty to accept the collective will regardless of their previous opinions and accept as if it were their own.

Whether this is merely sham democracy for propaganda or a true collectivist democracy too foreign for other, individualist cultures to recognize as such is perhaps a question better left to aliens who have no foot in either camp. The CPC certainly doesn't do much to dissuade the former interpretation.

 

[DukeWilleo1630]

Freaking awesome. EU in space bring it!

 

[Aerie]

Will players be able to create and use their own portraits ?

(Even if user-created portraits are not animated)

Yes, modders will be able to add their own portraits, none moving. And if you have the skills, you will likely be able to create your own moving one too.

 

[Kuschelflummi]

Hmm.. so are there option for gendered Ruler Classes like a matriachat or a patriachat?

 

[Darknotez]

Yes, modders will be able to add their own portraits, none moving. And if you have the skills, you will likely be able to create your own moving one too.

Wait a moment, in the event of a disaster happening, like an AI revolting against its creator or Warp Daemons spilling out from the Warp, will they have their own diplomatic avatars? Or you will not be able to discuss with them diplomatically after you crushed them at every turn and surrounded their capital?

I mean, sure for the Warp Daemons they do not use logic, but for an AI, logic is in every fiber of its being, it must sense it will soon be crushed, so it could in theory, discuss terms of surrender?

 

[Kaiser Timo]

I ache to know what kinds of end game Stellaris will offer?! Is it some kind of intergalactic hive fleet of bio/genestealers insects that consume whole systems that have any kind of biological life? Or is it warp rifts where beings of the aether, or demons and warp incursions that destroys or ripple FTL travel?

Gief more information before I become father at 5th February.

 

[Ituralde]

The dev diary was interesting for sure, not what I was expecting when they mentioned talking about Races before.

So am I the only one curious about those Genetic Traits and what now. That should be the topic of the next dev diary. What special ways are there to differentiate your Aliens apart from the Ideologies, that only exist at the game start, if I read it correctly.

 

[Denkt]

Here is my explonations how a race is affected by ethos:

Collectivism: A point into collectivism represent a race that shows little interest in individual advancement and such individuals are frowned in this society. Such a race try to put its resources for everyone to use which mean theoretically nobody will be left behind however in practis it is maybe "only" applied on a stellar level. Such race have an easy time to hold together an empire as the resources of the empire comes to everyones use but the lack of individual advancement may mean low efficiency. A fanatical collectivism would be a race that is so focused on this that it is able to even out the resources even on a space empire level but then at the cost of individual star system advancement. It may have very little problem holding togther an empire of arbitrary size but is also noted for being very ineffective.

Individualism: The opposite of collectivism, individualistic society focus on self advancement. Successful individuals will be powerful and in most societies you become successful by being efficient so these empries employ a more effective work force. However because the only way to advance in the society may be to control more resources then other individuals it will lead to an unstable society. An individualistic empire maybe are induvidualistic to a population level while a fanatical individualistic empire are basically individualistic to individual level. While very effective these empires tend to be some of the smallest as the planets are always looking for their independence.

Xenophobe: A xenophobic race shows little regard of other races, sometimes not seening them as anything more then slaves or just in the way. Not necessary militaristic nor pacifistic, they may try to actively destroy any race they know of to just trying to avoid contact. Sometimes presence of other races are tolerated but it is far from common and can often be a result of the political climate of the empires. Sometimes a xenophobic empire makes a cooperate deal with another empire but it is not that common. The little regared for other races may however prove useful then expanding your empire both by peaceful colonisation as well as war. A fanatic xenophobe would most likely try to avoid all contact with other races or actively hunt them down, exploting them to the fullest for the benefit of the xenophobe race.

Xenophile: A xenophilic race are interested in other races, not as slaves but for what they are. A xenophilic race have an easy time negotiating with other races however militaristic xenophiles are just as aggressive as their xenophobic counterparts but the difference is that they will not generally enslave foreign races but that don't mean they will not exploit their genetic strengths. The tolerance of the xenophilic empire make rule over a multi race empire much easier but the inability to exploit a large part of its population in the same way as a xenophobic empire can may be a great weakness but again the xenophobic empire would most likely need a strong military to keep a multi raced empire together which the xenophilic empire may not need. A fanatic xenophilic empire is super tolerant of other races and thus may have an extreamly hard time enslaving them but have an extremely easy time controlling them.

Pacifist: A pacifist race try to solve issues without violence although if forced they will respond with their military. Becuase of the focus on non violent methods you could expect that these races have a very developed legal system and thus a very stable society which seems to be represented as a food bonus which in turn is a reference to Swords into Plowshares. Their weakness are that their society have a hard time justifying war which may mean missed opportunities and difficulties in protecting themselfs. Fanatic pacifist have not completely disregarded war but they are very much in favor of peaceful negotiations but they will not just let themself getting enslaved.

Militaristic: A militaristic race would probably have a society based around might makes right however the legal system may be a bit more advanced then that, espacially for the collectivist. What define a militaristic empire is the tendency to shot first then talk however even the most militaristic empire would most likely try to avoid getting into unvinable wars. While this empire have an easy time making and staying at war the type of society it fosters are not a stable one thus it probably get a food malues. Fanatical militaristic because use violence to solve any conflict at any level. While very good at warfare, keeping such an empire together is another story.

Spiritualistic: A spiritualistic race is very interested at understanding what is beyond what our sense can discover, what is beyond what we currently can see, describing them as a race of philosophers would probably be a rather correct description. They show little interest at trying to understanding how matter work, they feel like a very rudimentary knowledge here is enough, instead they are focused on explaining things you can't make directly experiments on. While Spiritualistic races most likely have very primitive "hard science" (physics) because the disregarded of understanding what they can discover with their senses, they have some of the most "soft science" (society) as their very advanced philosophical questions drive the advancement into a very sophisticated society.

Materalistic: A materialistic race is basically an inverted spiritualistic race. They are all about understanding what their sense can discover but if anything is beyond that they don't have an interest in. Basically if they can't make an experiment on it or sense it, it dont exist. Basically a race of physics. They will probably not try to give any answer of questions of the type like if their is a higher purpose of life, they would just go with what they know with their experiments. While a materalistic race have some of the most advanced "hard science" (physics) their lack of interest in higher questions and philosophies mean that their "soft science" (society) will most likely be some of the most primitive seen in the galaxy.

 

[petertel123]

POPS OMGOMGOMG
And please include communism and fascism, I'd love an interplanetary communist empire

 

[BrokenSky]

Listen. Strange platypi lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery platypus threw a sword at you! I mean, if I went around saying I was an emperor just because some moistened mammal-beaver-duck thing had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

The masses are evil, stupid and foolish. Not evil like "haha I'm going to take over the world", more the low evil of general indifference and occasional malice towards people the masses don't acre about. Evil in the sense of being both very powerful and kind of a dick. The magical platypus is almost certainly more qualified to hand out executive power, existent or not.

 

[petertel123]

Man I really want to just click on all of those government icons and read their descriptions RIGHT NOW!
View attachment 140397

crown with lightbulb might be some form of enlightened absolutism, the guy with the bags of money is obviously capitalism (empire run by large corporations?), upper left is a dictatorship, upper right looks pretty fascist, all the lowest icons look like ballots (some sort of voting system but not necessarily democracy), the middle icon looks like a technocracy
for the rest of them I have no clue

 

[Milten]

POPS OMGOMGOMG
And please include communism and fascism, I'd love an interplanetary communist empire

Fanatical collectivism + materialism, here you go with space commies. Replace materialism with xenophoby - nazi in space.

 

[LeeDub]

That arthropod looks like a very sophisticated chap for some reason, but dear lord, man, put some clothes on! Public indecency and all that.

Love the artists work so far, the background could use some work though! Looks kinda like a high-res MoO, not that it's a bad thing, but it feels like a different style IMO.