Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Now that the 1.7.2 update is out, we can officially start talking about the next update, which has been named 1.8 'Čapek'. This update will include the reworked AI crisis and other changes to crises outlined in Dev Diary #72. More information will be forthcoming in future dev diaries on the exact nature and release date of 1.8, but for today we'll be going over some changes and improvements to Habitability and Terraforming coming in 1.8.

Habitability Changes
Ever since the changes to the habitable planet classes and habitability back in Heinlein we have continued to discuss habitability, and in particular, the frequency of habitable worlds in the galaxy. A general feeling among the designers has been that habitable planets are too common and do not feel special enough, but that reducing the base number of habitable worlds wasn't really feasible while most empires only had access to colonizing a third of them at the start. We also felt that the sheer abundance of habitable worlds that become available to you when you do achieve the ability to colonize/terraform other climate types also meant that there is little pressure to expand your borders - not when you can triple your planet count simply by utilizing the planets already inside your borders.

For this reason we've decided to make a number of fundamental changes to habitability. First of all, the habitability at which Pops can live on a planet was reduced from 40% to 20%, meaning that by default, most species will be able to colonize most habitable worlds in the galaxy from the very start. We have also changed the actual effects of habitability: Rather than acting as a cap on happiness, it now acts as a modifier on it (in addition to affecting growth, as before), with each 10 points of habitability below 100% reducing happiness by 2.5% (so at the base 20% habitability, a Pop would get -20% to their happiness). This means that while low-habitability planets are possible to colonize, it may not be a good idea to do so unless you have ways to compensate for the negative effects of low habitability.

With these changes, we have cut the base number of habitable worlds in the galaxy in half. For those that prefer to play with more (or even fewer!) habitable worlds, there is of course the habitable worlds slider in galaxy setup as before. Overall, the changes should result in habitable worlds and terraforming candidates feeling like more significant finds in the early game, and contribute to mid and late game friction as empires run out of worlds to colonize inside their borders.


Planetary Deposits
Along with the change to habitability, we have also changed the way resource deposits are generated on habitable worlds. Rather than all habitable worlds having the exact same chance to generate the different kind of resource deposits, we have now broken it up a bit by climate as follows:

Wet Climate planets (Continental, Ocean, Tropical) are more likely to generate food and society research deposits.
Frozen Climate planets (Arctic, Tundra, Alpine) are more likely to generate mineral and engineering research deposits.
Dry Climate planets (Desert, Arid, Savanna) are more likely to generate energy and physics research deposits.
Gaia planets are more likely to generate mixed deposits and strategic resources.

Of course, this does not mean that you will *only* find those types of desposits on such planets - it simply means they are more likely to be found there.

Terraforming Interface Improvements
Also coming in 1.8 are a couple changes to improve Terraforming and Terraforming Candidates. First of all, we've introduced a concept called 'significant planetary modifiers'. This is a flag (accessible to modders) that can be set on any planetary modifier, and will result in that planet appearing in the Expansion Planner even if it not of a habitable planet class. For now, the only significant modifier is Terraforming Candidates (such as Mars), so you should no longer find a Terraforming Candidate only to forget which system it is located in, but we expect to make more use of this functionality in the future.

We also spent some time cleaning up the Terraforming interface in general, hiding the button for planets where it is never applicable (such as non-Terraforming Candidate barren worlds) and improving the sorting and style of the actual terraforming window.

That's all for now! Next week we'll be talking about some significant changes coming in the area of genetic modification.

 

[Mrakvampire]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

Hmmm... let me think logically.
Gaia planet should act more like a vacation spot, place where (wealthy) people of your empire could go to rest... But again we have hiveminds... Well it's tricky.

Still, following small, but nevertheless nice to have buffs to consider:
1. +% happiness to all planets in your empire per Gaia planet with diminishing returns
2. ownership of Gaia planets could greatly increase chance of some kind of very rare techs (related to ecology or happiness)
3. % chance to have a better leaders, with better traits, etc. per each Gaia planet with deminishing returns
4. special building for Gaia planet that basically increases it's specialisation (i.e. building that gives flat +20% to food / energy / mineral / science generation)

 

[BaronBanana]

Any ideas for what that buff might be?

You already mentioned before that you are thinking about a production penalty for low habitability, so why not add a productivity bonus "living in paradise". This would make Gaia worlds attractive (especially in terms output/pop) and not be afflicted by the problems from happiness stacking.

 

[cray935]

As I read all the comments here, the stellaris team should think about the changes and could likely tweak a bit according to the habitability <> hapiness penalties.

 

[CycloneSP]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

assuming these we're selecting from a random pool for gaia specific modifiers, +happiness is the first thing that jumps to mind, but usually I can attain 100% happiness with little trouble, and by the time I have access to gaia worlds, I already have 100% habitability for my home planet type as well, so even the gaia creation tech is lack luster.

hmm, for other modifiers... "lush" could have an increased chance of happening on gaia planets(as well as tropical planets maybe) "cornucopia" could be a gaia specific modifier that grants +10% to food, minerals, and energy credits. Then of course there could be a modifier that grands +20% research to all research types.

basically anything to make gaia worlds a contestable resource rather than simply "oh look, that's a decent planet, pity all these other planets are just as good and are larger too"

also, as a side note, what are your thoughts on having a terraforming tech that allows you to add a planet modifier at the cost of extra energy credits AND minerals (maybe even throw in some research costs too?) Or at the very least give terraforming a random chance of adding a planet modifier. Something to make "Gaia creation" worth while. Since I don't think I've ever actually gotten the chance to get that tech, and even if I did, I really have no reason to use it most of the time.

 

[melaw]

If we see Gaia worlds as some kind of resort, it could be a viable tactic to move the unhappiest pops there, strictly from a roleplay perspective.
Would need a good portion of + attraction and + happiness for that, maybe compensated with lower planetary output.

 

[Seryss]

It's probably been brought up in the last 14 pages, but resource types being tied to planets is interesting in theory, but the way you put it together i believe will have unintended consequences.

Food/society are probably the two weakest resources in the game, i don't know if you have any kind of metrics outside MP to see what planets players choose, but if this change goes through, bye Continental home worlds, hello frozen. Frozen is just going to be THE optimal starting planet, more minerals + star port research okay thank you. Energy, and physics are equally good, if not better in the later game, but as that approaches you'll have the tech to colonize those worlds.

 

[Milten]

Still, following small, but nevertheless nice to have buffs to consider:
1. +% happiness to all planets in your empire per Gaia planet with diminishing returns
2. ownership of Gaia planets could greatly increase chance of some kind of very rare techs (related to ecology or happiness)
3. % chance to have a better leaders, with better traits, etc. per each Gaia planet with deminishing returns

I wouldn't mind these, but only if Gaia terraforming wasn't a thing.

 

[kaakel]

"Planetary Deposits
Along with the change to habitability, we have also changed the way resource deposits are generated on habitable worlds. Rather than all habitable worlds having the exact same chance to generate the different kind of resource deposits, we have now broken it up a bit by climate as follows:

Wet Climate planets (Continental, Ocean, Tropical) are more likely to generate food and society research deposits.
Frozen Climate planets (Arctic, Tundra, Alpine) are more likely to generate mineral and engineering research deposits.
Dry Climate planets (Desert, Arid, Savanna) are more likely to generate energy and physics research deposits.
Gaia planets are more likely to generate mixed deposits and strategic resources."

I was discussing this with my friends and we seemed to have a bit of a disagreement. While it was great that you can further dictate what kind of resources your planets hold when you are going for a very specific type of faction (like engineering focused and Frozen Climate), there was no point in really picking frozen climate for fluff/rp reasons if you were to play for example a society faction that wanted a frozen climate.

So i came up with this idea

Green planets are more likely to generate food and society research deposits.
Orange planets are more likely to generate mineral and engineering research deposits.
Blue planets are more likely to generate energy and physics research deposits.

Obviously it wouldn't probably make that much sense for jungles to wield high amounts of minerals, but this is just for reference

 

[Fortepsai]

Karel Čapek great idea for the name.-) Iam so glad that you have writen his name corectly ! He is my countrymen and one of the most best sci-fi writer at that time, he was the guy whom said for first time a word ROBOT for AI ..

 

[Fortepsai]

Given that minerals are the most important resource, it follows that species favouring arctic type cold worlds will be at an advantage. Always play as one bascially.

Excatly what i gonna do

 

[dirkleton]

So if you're opening up colonization... why not take the next step and remove world biomes entirely and set biomes on a tile by tile basis?

Single biome worlds are the worst trope in all of sci fi, anyways.

 

[Jasons073]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

Given that "Gaia World" gives the connotation of a legendary planet full of riches (sort of like how El Dorado, Shangri-La, etc., are legendary cities), what about a temporary buff to research, production, unity, or some or all of the above, once you colonize it? I imagine it would be easy to flag the world as having been colonized once to prevent the player from getting it on the same world multiple times, and it would be a good way to encourage a fight to settle Gaia worlds first.

Think "Golden Age" from Civ 5.

 

[MrMarbles]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

There are a lot of good mods out there enhancing different planet attributes. Their level of use would be a good indicator of the popularity of the changes they bring.

Guilli's planet modifiers is the most popular, with 165+ new modifiers and production bonuses going up to 200% in exceptionally rare cases.

EDIT: Possible candidates for Gaia are:
- Ancient terraforma: The planet does not appear to have been created naturally. Tiles have ancient buildings that can be used or layers of civilization that can be explored for Society research.

- Spires: The landscape is dotted with tall constructions, that can be modified and used as dwellings. Increased pop growth.

 

[Jasons073]

Tomb worlds already have basically only science deposits.

If not already in existence, could the player who settles a tomb world have a chance to discover a lost "vault" of remnants from the prior civilization that lived there, who would then be incorporated into the finder's civilization?

Would be a fun "easter egg" to a certain RPG series

 

[Wizzington]

If not already in existence, could the player who settles a tomb world have a chance to discover a lost "vault" of remnants from the prior civilization that lived there, who would then be incorporated into the finder's civilization?

Would be a fun "easter egg" to a certain RPG series

Already a thing you can find on tomb worlds!

 

[Risa]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

Mixed deposits (except between different kinds of research) are generally of little value, as there aren't many buildings with mixed output.

 

[Heavenly Serpent]

Hmmm... let me think logically.
Gaia planet should act more like a vacation spot, place where (wealthy) people of your empire could go to rest... But again we have hiveminds... Well it's tricky.

Still, following small, but nevertheless nice to have buffs to consider:
1. +% happiness to all planets in your empire per Gaia planet with diminishing returns
2. ownership of Gaia planets could greatly increase chance of some kind of very rare techs (related to ecology or happiness)
3. % chance to have a better leaders, with better traits, etc. per each Gaia planet with deminishing returns
4. special building for Gaia planet that basically increases it's specialisation (i.e. building that gives flat +20% to food / energy / mineral / science generation)

I personally really like the idea of Gaia planets providing an Empire Wide bonus. It would make them feel extremely special. Right now, I like to terraform lots of Gaia worlds, once I get the relevant tech, just because it seems like the sort of thing my Main race (who are a bunch of perfectionists) would do.

 

[sdeezie]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

A buff to migration attractiveness would make a lot of sense, I think, since everyone can live there, and those planets are supposed to be really beautiful, hospitable, etc.

It would also fit in the "paradise planet" trope if there were a set of Gaia-specific planet modifiers for different variations of the trope, with each Gaia world spawning one of them:

1. Garden World (bonus to food tile spawn, food production)
2. Floating Terrain (bonus to physics spawn, physics research)
3. Incredible Composition (bonus to mineral spawn, mining output)
4. Planetary Consciousness (bonus to all research ... and a chance of every pop on the planet mutating and getting the hive mind modifier before rebelling against you)
5. etc.

100% habitability is nice, but having Gaia-specific planet buffs would make them desirable above and beyond their habitability and tile resources.

I'm inspired in this recommendation by playing around with AlphaMod, where asteroids & barren worlds have their own class of very good planetary buffs, which makes those planets worth colonizing despite the effort it takes to build up their habitability.

With Gaia worlds, I think the above buffs would make them serve even better as sources of friction at all points in the game.

 

[The_Sorrowful]

First of all, the habitability at which Pops can live on a planet was reduced from 40% to 20%

with each 10 points of habitability below 100% reducing happiness by 2.5%

Very well. Maybe those make player/AI colonize planet more offensively.

And make them access resource more easily.



But those things destroy balance about species trait.



Yep, I mean traits that increase habitality such as 'Adaptive'



Yet now, the main advantage of those traits like 'Adaptive' is letting planet that dismatch climate accesable earlier.
For example, to colonize alphine planets with species that have Ocean preperance and 'Adaptive' trait, we only need a few techs and/or special resources that increace 10% habitality total.

That means with that trait, we can colonize other climates planet with fewer and lower techs/resources.


It is main advantage of traits like 'Adaptive'.....



But, Planets that have very low habitality(below 40%) will be able to be colonized in early game even if species do not have traits that increase habitality??
Huh?
those would steal main advantage from them!!


Well, even in this case, those traits have a little advantage yet because higher habitality means faster pop grow speed and more happiness.
But selecting both 'Communal' and 'rapid breeders' is mooooooooooooooooooooooore efficient.

 

[Mavkiel]

There's more (and better) mixed deposits that can spawn there now, but I don't disagree regardless. Any ideas for what that buff might be?

I see two types of Gaia worlds personally. Ones you find, and ones you create.

If you create a Gaia world, I'd love for more tiles on the planet to open up. Idea being that more of the planet is habitable. -- That alone would make any teraforming worthwhile.

Pre-existing Gaia worlds -- Chance at a unique tile or two? Like some sort of factory, or research lab. Idea being that some fallen empire was converting it to a holy world (Or something else) and left for whatever reason.

Side note: Tomb worlds could certainly use some love, with all those bonuses going around to other planet types they become far less attractive. -- Also I'd personally love a slider to make those more common. Stelllaris hardly seems like a peaceful galaxy.