Stellaris Dev Diary #56 - Ascension Perks

[Wizzington]

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we'll be talking about a feature that was hinted at in last dev diary, Ascension Perks. Ascension Perks are related to the Traditions and Unity system, but is a paid feature in the (unannounced) expansion accompanying the 1.5 'Banks' update, rather than a part of the update itself. Those without the expansion will get full access to the Traditions and Unity features, but not to the Ascension Perks themselves.

Ascension Perks
The idea behind the Ascension Perks is to provide more unique unlockable features for Empires, and to provide the player with the ability to determine an 'endgame' for their species: What their empire is striving towards. Perhaps your goal is to go all-in on AI, replacing the frail biological bodies of your pops with immortal machines, or to harness the psionic potential of your species and reach a higher form of existence, allowing your empire to tap into other planes of being? All these and more are covered by the Ascension Perk system.

Each time you complete a Tradition tree, you will unlock one Ascension Perk slot, of which there are 8 in total. There may also be other ways to unlock slots, such as from certain rare technologies or as a reward for a particular event chain. This slot can then be filled with any of the Ascension Perks available to you. The final number of perks is not yet set down, but there are currently more than 20 and there will likely be more added. Ascension Perks have pre-requisites, which can for example be a particular technology or tradition, a certain number of Ascension Perk slots to be unlocked, or a specific ethos or government type. Some Ascension Perks are one-offs that simply provide a bonus to a particular area of your empire: For example, a bonus to border range, or cheaper terraforming. Others unlock new features, such as the ability to construct new types of space structures (more on in later dev diaries).

Finally there are the three 'Species Endgame' paths: The biological path, the spiritual path and the synthetic path. These three paths each consist of two perks, the first of which unlocks access to the second once a number of other pre-requisites have been met. The paths are mutually exclusive, and once you start heading down one of them, the other two are locked off.

• The Biological Path focuses on mastery over biological evolution. The first level of it gives access to more gene points and significantly cuts the cost of genemodding projects, while the second level expands the options available during genemodding in addition to further providing more points and less cost.
• The Psionic Path focuses on developing the psionic potential of your population. The first level unlocks new psionic technologies and benefits, while the second level allows your empire to reach a higher level of existance and communicate with the beings present there.
• The Synthetic Path focuses on the replacement of biology with machinery. The first level allows you to turn your population partly synthetic through the use of cybernetics, while the second level replaces your biological pops with robots, turning your empire entirely synthetic.

That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about the concept of species rights and obligations.

Also about eating pops.

 

[Wizzington]

I'm absolutely LOVING these new traditions and ascendancy perks. Not only will they make each and every empire feel more unique and give a general gist of their 'culture', but will make late game more fun. On a side note, I hope some of these more extreme perks take time to fully implement and the process doesn't necessarily have to be smooth and without problem.

Here's a question, though - will some of these perks change the way you can interact with some of the end-game crises? For example, the AI rebellion will not be automatically hostile towards you if your population is entirely synth, or you can actually engage in limited diplomacy with the Unbidden if you have transcended, etc.

Also, I hope that the 'master terraformers' can terraform barren worlds into habitable ones(for a steep price and time, of course), so their perk isn't just '+50% terraforming speed' or something like that, but actually feels powerful and unique.

The exact details of how going fully synthetic etc will affect endgame crises is something we're still working out. More on that later.

The ascension perks are not just 'click perk to make everyone synthetic', special projects, events etc are involved.

 

[Wizzington]

Wow, this seems really really epic. Thank you guys over there in the cold North for such awesomeness.

I do have a question though, do the top levels of the Endgame ones contain special game mechanics that are different from normal empires?

They contain unique mechanics not otherwise available, yes.

 

[Wizzington]

Even a rough estimate would be nice.

It's a while away, that's all I can say right now.

 

[Wizzington]

The only concern I have about it right now is that ascension paths may add nothing to empire uniqueness, i.e. all materialists turn into synths, spiritualists into unbidden, everyone else just go Hak-Hak. All this would be just linear upgrade path for already existing entities.

You're not required to go down any of these paths, nor will every AI-controlled empire do so.

 

[Wizzington]

Oh come on, why, WHY must it be a paid expansion rather than part of the Banks update itself? What's wrong with including it IN the Banks update?

Because without paid expansions we will not be able to continue developing Stellaris.

 

[Wizzington]

Problem is, you won't be able to change anything with Ascension in future expansions. Like with Retinues.

Not true. We have instituted better policies since, like features being unlocked by multiple different expansions in EU4.

 

[Wizzington]

Is anyone else trying to bend time and space in a futile attempt to MOVE THE SCROLLBAR in that picture and see the description of Voidborn?

Why? I know precisely what it is.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

What von Neumann might look like:
[snip]

OH GOD!
All the buried memories.

Stop raiding my colonies!
Make him stop. PLEASE!!