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Stellaris Dev Diary #59: Megastructures

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Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today's dev diary is going to cover the headline feature of the Utopia Expansion that we announced mere hours ago: Megastructures.

Megastructures (Paid Feature)
Have you ever looked at a Fallen Empire's Ringworld and thought 'I want to build one of those?'. Well, so have we, and in the Utopia expansion you will be able to do so. Megastructures are massive multi-stage construction projects that require an enormous investment of resources and time but offer quite spectacular pay-offs. There are four Megastructures that you can build: The Ringworld, the Dyson Sphere, the Sentry Array and the Science Nexus. In order to build a Megastructure you will need to unlock a number of advanced technologies and pick the appropriate Ascension Perk. This will unlock the ability for your construction ship to build a Megastructure Construction Site in an appropriate location. The Construction Site alone is a project that takes a large amount of resources and takes several years to complete.
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Once you have built the Construction Site for a Megastructure, you will be able to upgrade it to the first construction stage for a Megastructure. For the Ringworld and Dyson Sphere, this is an initial frame that provides no benefit, while the Science Nexus and Sentry Array gets a partially completed structure that provides some of the benefit of the finished version. From here, you can upgrade the unfinished Megastructure to the next stage(s) by investing more time and resources. For the Dyson Sphere, Science Nexus and Sentry Array, you upgrade one stage at a time, with increasing benefits from each finished stage until you have the completed Megastructure. The Ringworld Frame has four segments that can all be upgraded into finished Ringworld Sections simultaneously.
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The four different Megastructures work as follows:

Ringworld: Can only be built around a planet-rich star in your borders and, once finished, provides four maximum size 100% habitable planets. The Ringworld construction project will consume all planets in the system to be used as building materials. Cannot be built around Black Holes, Pulsars or Neutron Stars.
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Dyson Sphere: Can only be built around a star in your borders and provides a huge amount of energy each month, with the amount increasing for each stage of the Dyson Sphere completed. Once completed, the Dyson Sphere will cool down the system, turning most planets there into frozen worlds. Cannot be built around Black Holes, Pulsars or Neutron Stars.
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Science Nexus: Can be built around any non-inhabitable non-moon non-asteroid planet (similar to Habitats) and provides a huge amount of science each month, with the amount increasing for each stage of the Science Nexus completed.
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Sentry Array: Can be built around any non-inhabitable non-moon non-asteroid planet (similar to Habitats) and functions as a sensor station, providing sensor range in a radius that grows for each stage of the Sentry Array completed. Once fully finished, it will give complete sensor view of the entire galaxy.
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Building a Megastructure is hardly a subtle affair, and once an empire starts construction on such a project, all other empires that have communications with them will be notified about the start, progression and completion of such a project. As monumental undertakings involving the resources of a whole empire, these projects can also have unintended political and diplomatic consequenses. Also, much like the Ringworlds already in the game, you are not the first civilization to conceive of the idea of Megastructures, and you may encounter ancient, ruined Megastructures while exploring.
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That's all for today! Next week we'll be talking about yet another feature of the Utopia expansion: Psionic Transcendance and The Shroud.
 
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Looking great! The Utopia Expansion and Patch coming with it builds up to be lots of fun!

Also wondering about the changes to Governments that Wiz mentioned in the Stream.. :rolleyes:

Next week we'll be talking about yet another feature of the Utopia expansion: Psionic Transcendance and The Shroud.

S-space Jesus? :eek:
 
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This is really amazing.

Will the design of the Megastructures depend on the species you picked? It would be cool if Humanoid Dyson Spheres looked completely different than Fungoid Spheres, for example.
 
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But, but...no Deathstar :(:oops: *sigh*

Can these megastructures be attacked and destroyed? I wonder why all other civs are notified when you start building them...

Also: which ones can have pops living on them (if any)? Aside from ringworlds, obviously
 
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Will you be able to build, say, a Ring World around a star with colonized planets? Will the population simply die, or would you be able to migrate them elsewhere? I would hope that when you start a mega-project, your population would leave, possibly having to do with the political events. I also hope you'll be able to improve your home system, as I'm sure a lot of people would love to have the heart of their empire be a monument to their glory, and all that.
 
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There are four Megastructures that you can build: The Ringworld, the Dyson Sphere, the Sentry Array and the Science Nexus. In order to build a Megastructure you will need to unlock a number of advanced technologies and pick the appropriate Ascension Perk.
so are these megastructure types mutually exclusive, or can we make all of them given the time/resources?

EDIT: also if you can build different types(or conquer systems from other empire that already completed theirs) can you have a Ringworld and Dysion Sphere in the same system?
 
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My Zuhl will be exited about the next dev diary.
 
Looks fantastic.

What i'd like to also see is the ability to build Planetary Rings, structures encircling your inhabited planets that act as static defensive structures.
 
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Can those Wonders be destroyed by any means? The same question goes for Habitat Stations - do they need protection? And if so, would the destruction of a habitat cause significant diplomatic unrest?
 
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Can we build multiple sentry arrays? Because why build one when you can build two for twice the price?

The Ringworld would be super useful if you could consume useless planets. Could you use the energy of a Dyson sphere to build space heaters to heat up frozen worlds? Seriously, there has to be enough excess energy to thaw a few planets.

Wait, you could build habits around the sphere! Whoo!

The real question is if multiple of each can be built. Production without planets means science overload!
 
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Questions:

1. So could you, if you had enough resources, technically build Dyson Spheres around everything? That should cool down the entire galaxy and make habitable worlds much rarer, so I'd imagine that every lifeform is then forced to inhabit Habitats instead, right?

2. Can you destroy Dyson Spheres?

3. Can Sentry Array and Science Nexus be taken over by another empire, and if yes then how?

4. Can megastructures also be abandoned if nobody has borders enclosing them? (like mining stations for example)
 
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I hope you don't make the megastructures too cheap so that in the end game not every empire will have dyson sphere.

Will Fallen empires, especially Keepers of Knowledge, react to other empires building these megastructures?
 
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This looks awesome!

I do have one question. If you have enough resources and time, can you build more than one Megastructure (like a Dyson Sphere and a Science Nexus) in the same system?