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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
 
So this may be a stupid question but please forgive this as I am functioning on 2 hours of sleep, but why not allow us to purge any pop, regardless of social status? Surely you could add an unhappiness modifier - something along the lines of "Tyrannical government -35 happiness" for purging political adversaries/non-slaves. I ask this because I typically play as fanatic xenophobe and authoritarian. I enslave alien species and confine them to their planet while my native species does all the ruling on chattel slavery, so purging in this new update wouldn't be useful to me because I would only be able to do it to a species that already doesn't matter in my empire outside it's food and mineral income and I wouldn't wanna purge one of them.. on the other hand, ethic divergent pops on far away planets that are making things unhappy because they're of a faction I'm suppressing would be the absolute ideal target of a swift purging.
 
Different things take different amount of times to implement, and your pet issues are not automatically everyone else's pet issues.

I wouldn't call them "pet issues", but if you used to it, fine. And that's not the answer. Some things, such as midgame customization, were required a long time ago. I just wondered why other non-paid things get priority and why their "pet issues" must be more important than those of others people.
 
I wouldn't call them "pet issues", but if you used to it, fine. And that's not the answer. Some things, such as midgame customization, were required a long time ago. I just wondered why other non-paid things get priority and why their "pet issues" must be more important than those of others people.

Because as Game Director, I chose them to get priority, because I thought they were important, or because they were simple to implement, or because a lot of people asked for it, or because they fit thematically into an update or expansion/story pack, or any number of other reasons. You're free to disagree with my choices, but just because you think something is 'required' does not make it so.
 
Because as Game Director, I chose them to get priority, because I thought they were important, or because they were simple to implement, or because a lot of people asked for it, or because they fit thematically into an update or expansion/story pack, or any number of other reasons. You're free to disagree with my choices, but just because you think something is 'required' does not make it so.

I don't think you're entirely honest with the implication you operate on prioritizing based on what a lot of people ask for.
 
I don't think you're entirely honest with the implication you operate on prioritizing based on what a lot of people ask for.
Lunar bases, emblem changes and ship prefix changes are very much pet ideas and not something that has a lot of backing from the fan base.

And Wiz did say "... OR because a lot of people ask for it". How can you interpret that as "EVERY TIME something has a lot of people asking for it, I give it priority"??
 
Since you've added Initial Border Status... I can imagine demanding fees in order to allow other empires to enter your space. It could be some sort of an edict perhaps - "Each fleet which wants to pass through this space must pay 100 energy and 100 minerals." That would perhaps scale up with the size of an empire. Of course this would be done automatically and only the "buying" side would be notified whether to pay the sum or not, and thus not enter...
 
I was more suggesting towards the wants of quality of life changes people have been asking for since launch.. Not whatever the guy said about lunar bases.

We have implemented a vast number of QoL changes requested by people since launch. Expansion Planner, Rally Points, Track All just to mention a few off the top of my head. Hell, the open/closed borders policy is precisel such a frequently requested QoL change.
 
We have implemented a vast number of QoL changes requested by people since launch. Expansion Planner, Rally Points, Track All just to mention a few off the top of my head. Hell, the open/closed borders policy is precisel such a frequently requested QoL change.

I recognize this and I applaud a lot of these, I don't want to give off that I dislike the approach you've made on the game though I disagree with your DLC policy, there are some things that I assume are small that have been asked for for a long time.

Like the army equipment stuff, specifically comes to mind. Upgrading a certain tier building in bulk - as in when you research a new energy station upgrading all energy stations on the planet in one click rather than 14.
 
I recognize this and I applaud a lot of these, I don't want to give off that I dislike the approach you've made on the game though I disagree with your DLC policy, there are some things that I assume are small that have been asked for for a long time.

Like the army equipment stuff, specifically comes to mind. upgrading a certain tier building in bulk - as in when you research a new energy station upgrading all energy stations on the planet in one click rather than 14.

So, you recognize that we implement things based on request, but you think I'm lying about implementing things based on requests. Okay then.

Anyway, army attachmentsis because we're almost certainly going to overhaul the army system entirely when we get to warfare, and the gameplay impact of attachments is minimal, so we don't want to waste time making a new interface for it. The upgrade all is a little trickier than you might think, but it's on the priority list. It's mostly an issue in the endgame if you have a lot of core sector planets, which most people don't, so that's why it hasn't been given highest prio.
 
Since you've added Initial Border Status... I can imagine demanding fees in order to allow other empires to enter your space. It could be some sort of an edict perhaps - "Each fleet which wants to pass through this space must pay 100 energy and 100 minerals." That would perhaps scale up with the size of an empire. Of course this would be done automatically and only the "buying" side would be notified whether to pay the sum or not, and thus not enter...
Pay-to-pass sounds like a great racket diplomatic tool... assuming the AI can deal with it, that is, without going bankrupt paying tolls for nonessential travels. Still, this is a great idea for future updates; are there any mods right now that already attempt to do something like this?

All these democratic regimes who close their borders to me without any provocation just because they don't like me? Up to this point, I always counter their hostility by closing off my border as well, sometimes even boxing or hemming them in completely from the rest of the galaxy. But as I always believe in freedom of travel and exploration (not like they can raid or attack without DoW ahead of time), I'd much rather just charge these egalitarian, pacifist jerks for a toll.
 
So, you recognize that we implement things based on request, but you think I'm lying about implementing things based on requests. Okay then.

Hey come on man, I haven't disrespected you as many of the others you've faced today. I do not imply you don't see and implement things we've wanted to a long time rather that the loudest of things seemingly get addressed last. You said this in your post, that you will prioritize things based on how easy they are to implement sometimes, I question this when there are larger issues that are more prevalent that should be addressed before the fluffy, small things.

This is what I question, in a respectful way to your persons. Not insulting your abilities or competence as a game director.
 
Hey come on man, I haven't disrespected you as many of the others you've faced today. I do not imply you don't see and implement things we've wanted to a long time rather that the loudest of things seemingly get addressed last. You said this in your post, that you will prioritize things based on how easy they are to implement sometimes, I question this when there are larger issues that are more prevalent that should be addressed before the fluffy, small things.

This is what I question, in a respectful way to your persons. Not insulting your abilities or competence as a game director.

I read your post as saying I wasn't being honest about us implementing things based on request (because I did say it was just one of our priorities when making decisions). If that's not what you meant, then fair enough.
 
Different things take different amount of times to implement, and your pet issues are not automatically everyone else's pet issues.
Perhaps not but I'll sign of on most of them too, at least the QOL ones.

Lunar bases, emblem changes and ship prefix changes are very much pet ideas and not something that has a lot of backing from the fan base.
Well maybe Lunar bases but being able to change the name colour and icon of your empire after the start of the game seems like a definite QoL issue. Especially since the AI tends to change name when they change certain aspects of their empire.
It's also be nice to be able to change your ruler title after the game begins so if you change government don't get stuck with the generic ones.