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Stellaris Dev Diary #84: Čapek Feature Roundup (part 2)

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today's dev diary is a continuation of the feature round-up in the 1.8 'Čapek' update that we started in last week's dev diary. In this one, we'll be talking about some new policies being added to the game. Everything mentioned in this dev diary is part of the free update.

Land Appropriation
The first new policy added is called 'Land Appropriation'. This policy is available to all ethics and governs whether or not newly conquered planets should have land appropriated from non-citizen species. If this policy is on, any newly conquered planet with less than 5 tiles of unblocked free space will have some non-citizen pops removed to clear way for citizen pops. These pops are either simply removed outright (simulating being driven into slums and fringe regions) or become refugees that will attempt to flee to an empire that will have them. Additionally, any planet that has land seized will get a temporary 'Land Appropriated' modifier that massively increases migration attraction and prevents non-citizen species from reproducing and migrating there while in effect. Non-multispecies AI empires will make use of this policy, meaning that even regular wars of conquest will generate refugees, indirectly boosting refugee haven empires.
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Pre-Sapient Policies
The policies for Pre-Sapients (previously Pre-Sentients, we have changed the Sentient/Sapient terminology in 1.8) have been expanded in 1.8. The following policies are now available for choosing how to deal with pre-sapients:
* Extermination: Pre-Sapients are quickly and efficiently exterminated to make room for your Pops.
* Livestock: Pre-Sapients are hunted and eaten, producing food for your empire, though this will slowly deplete their population. They can also be manually purged at will. Depletion is mostly done for balance reasons, as otherwise there would be no reason *not* to eat them.
* Tolerated: Pre-Sapients are tolerated and will generally not be interfered with, though they can be manually purged or killed off via terraforming.
* Protected: Pre-Sapients are protected from purging and worlds they are living on cannot be terraformed.
2017_08_31_3.png


Initial Border Status
A new policy has been added that controls the initial border status you have towards other empires: open or closed. This only affects the status of borders after establishing communications and has no effect on empires you have not contacted. It also does not prevent manual opening or closing of borders towards select empires.
2017_08_31_4.png


Robotic Workers
The last new policy ties into the changes to artificial intelligence policies discussed in dev diary 78 and is simply a blanket policy for whether robotic workers should be permitted to be built and maintained. If banned, all robot pops in your empire will automatically be disassembled.
2017_08_31_2.png


Manual Purging
Finally for today, also as a result of feedback given after dev diary 78, we have brought back the manual Purge button for organic pops as well, though its use is highly restricted. You can manually purge selective Pops only if they are Slaves, non-protected Pre-Sapients, or robotic Pops without citizen rights. The rules for which Pops can be Purged/Disassembled are fully moddable.
2017_08_31_5.png


That's all for today! Next week we'll continue the feature roundup by talking about changes to Ascension Paths and Megastructures and the addition of Awakened Empire Decadence.
 
I can change it to 'Hunted'. Not guaranteed to make it into 1.8 though.
If you can, it would be very cool, thanks !
It might also be a bit stupid to ask, but why would a change in localization not be guaranteed to be included ? For something changing the game, even if very slightly, it has to be tested so it doesn't break anything, but localization, as far as I know, doesn't interact with the rest of the game
 
Every month has 30 days even the second one and there isn't a leap year

Cheers for that, I haven't compared game years to real years before, lol. That would explain the difference.

If you can, it would be very cool, thanks !
It might also be a bit stupid to ask, but why would a change in localization not be guaranteed to be included ? For something changing the game, even if very slightly, it has to be tested so it doesn't break anything, but localization, as far as I know, doesn't interact with the rest of the game

If they're close to the localisation deadline there might not be time to include last-minute changes to strings that need to be translated. In a single-language game last minute text changes are easy, but when you have to give translators time to work through a list, sometimes you need to give them weeks in advance.
 
Cheers for that, I haven't compared game years to real years before, lol. That would explain the difference.



If they're close to the localisation deadline there might not be time to include last-minute changes to strings that need to be translated. In a single-language game last minute text changes are easy, but when you have to give translators time to work through a list, sometimes you need to give them weeks in advance.
Why treat their translation process as something that needs to be protected? Paradox translations are horrible anyways. Whether the translator goes by "Depletion" or "Hunting" to come up with a proper word in his language doesn't really matter as most of the time the translations will be totally out of context and butcher any flavor the game might have.
 
@Wiz Will we be able to not enslave synths without citizenrights that work in science labs? In 1.0 to 1.4 it was possible to give no citizenrights to synths and only enslave those who work in the mines. While having free synths in the labs for more sciene output. As it is right now there is no good reason to build a lot of synths and then enslave them just for a bunch more minerals since it will guarantee you an ai revolt (or with 1.8 it will improve the chances for the cotingency).

But since we will even be able to have synths revolts in synthetic dawn, it would make sense to reintroduce this feature. The player would profit from synths without citizenship because they could work in sciene labs and as slaves in mines, BUT the player will allways live with the risk that his empire will be torn apart and give birth to a hostile machine empire.
 
Caste System pops can indeed not be purged, only fully enslaved species. The reason they can't migrate is that they could end up migrating into slavery, so that's not changing.

That's good. But I think, if we're tabling improving the whole migration system, both gameplay and flavourwise migrating into slavery is a lot better than not being able to migrate at all. Allowing free Caste System pops to migrate doesn't block any gameplay, nor opens up anything you couldn't do yourself (there is already nothing stopping you from putting any Caste System pops into slavery at will). The alternative blocks off a considerable amount of gameplay, because it also stops migration treaties, etc. It's a huge damper on playing a Caste System empire that tries to treat its free pops as actual free pops (or treat aliens as different from their own species).

Well, main point is just that I experienced it as very restrictive and unfun. But thanks for clarifying your reasoning. :)
 
They're not sapient. At most xenophiles might be a little miffed.
just because its not as sentient as you are doesnt mean you can hold yourself above it!!

HEY! EVERYONE! Wiz discriminates against pre-sentients!

(whoever gets the reference gets a cookie)
 
Are you counting a year as 360 days? It's 365, or 365.25 if you want to approximate closer, so it's just 3 days short of 5 years.
365.24 to be a bit more exact :p. (Or between 365.2422 and 365.2425, different credible sources give different answers)

I was just going to point out that Stellaris years are 360 days but someone beat me to it so I decided to get my pedant on.
 
Are you counting a year as 360 days? It's 365, or 365.25 if you want to approximate closer, so it's just 3 days short of 5 years.
Oh wait, Im dumb :D Yeah, then it makes sense that it would be 5 years. But in Stellaris every month has the same amount of days, right? So how long is a Stellaris year then?
Edit: Someone already answered, Stellaris years are 360 days ong.
 
If we haven't announced a release date, you'll have enough time to start and finish a new game unless you play very infrequently.

I can't give any more details than that.

It's answers like these that bring out the inner child in me that wants to have a tantrum so it can demand that it wants it, and it wants it now. :(