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Stellaris Dev Diary #100 - Titans and Planet Destroyers

Hello everyone and welcome to this very special triple digit Stellaris development diary! Today's dev diary marks the start of talking about the Apocalypse Expansion that will be accompanying the 2.0 'Cherryh' update. We still can't give you an ETA on the release of either, and there's a fair bit to cover in the expansion before then, but we're getting closer. As this is the start of talking about paid features, I just want to take a moment to reiterate that everything talked about in dev diaries 91-99 (with the exception of Dev Diary #95 which was about Humanoids) were about the Cherryh update and all features and changes mentioned in these previous dev diaries are part of the free update, NOT the expansion. Everything mentioned in this dev diary will be part of the paid Apocalypse expansion, however. Please note that some of the screenshots in this dev diary feature placeholder art and icons.


Planet Destroyers (Apocalypse Feature)
As mentioned all the way back in Dev Diary #50 and again in Dev Diary #69, Planet Destroyers have been on our wish list for quite some time, but wasn't something we could make work with restrictive nature of the old warscore system. Now that this is no longer a concern thanks to the new war system we talked about in Dev Diary #93, we finally have our chance to implement this beloved sci-fi staple.

Planet Destroyers come in the form of a new ship class called a Colossus. Though nominally a military ship, the Colossus has no actual fleet combat capability, but is instead a single massive weapon solely dedicated to the purpose of laying waste to enemy planets. To build a Colossus, you must first already know how to build Titans (more on those below) and then take the Colossus Project Ascension Perk, which unlocks a special project to research and design your first Colossus. Each Colossus mounts a single World Devastator-class weapon, and during the course of the project you will be given the option to choose which such weapon you want to focus on, with five potential options to choose from:
  • World Cracker: Shatters a planet, leaving behind a broken debris field that can be mined for resources. Available to non-Pacifists.
  • Global Pacifier: Encases the planet in an impenetrable shield, permanently cutting it off from the rest of the galaxy. A research station can be built to study the planet afterwards.
  • Neutron Sweep: Destroys most higher forms of life on the planet but leaves the infrastructure intact for colonization. Available to non-Spiritualist, non-Pacifist empires.
  • God Ray: Converts all organic Pops on the planet to spiritualist and destroys all machine/synthetic pops, as well as massively increasing spiritualist ethics attraction on the planet for a time. Available to Spiritualist empires.
  • Nanobot Dispersal: Assimilates all Pops on the planet, causing it to defect to your empire with its newly cyborgized population. Only available to Driven Assimilators (and thus requires Synthetic Dawn as well).
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(Weapon icons are placeholders)

Additional types of World Devastator weapons that are potentially available to your empire can be researched as rare technologies after finishing the Colossus project. Once the project is complete, you will be able to build a Colossus at any Starbase with a shipyard where you have the Colossus Assembly Yards building built. Once built, the Colossus functions similar to a civilian ship, in that it is own fleet, and cannot be merged with other fleets. Each empire can only have a single Colossus active at the same time, but can build a new one if their active one is destroyed.

Colossi have no conventional armaments (though we are discussing a few medium/PD turrets to them), and their real purpose is to target enemy planets. When a Colossus is ordered to target a planet, it will travel straight towards it, ignoring enemy ships entirely even if they fire on it. The Colossus will travel to the planet, take up position and begin charging its weapon. The weapon takes quite some time to charge, giving enemy fleets a chance to try and destroy the Colossus to stop it from firing (though Colossi naturally can take a great deal of punishment, they are not invincible). Once the weapons is fully charged, it will fire, executing its effects (as described above) on the hapless planet. The Colossus is then free to continue on to the next planet if you so wish. Most Colossi weapons can only target planets owned by empires you are at war with, though some of them can target primitive worlds and the World Cracker can be used on uncolonized rock-type worlds (but will not always generate a mineral deposit in that case).
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(Animations & interface are partly WIP)

The system for creating World Devastator weapons is fully scriptable, and modders will be able to create their own planet-destroying/changing effects.

Titans (Apocalypse Feature)
Titans are another new ship class available in the Apocalypse expansion, but unlike the Colossus they are much more like conventional warships. Titans are researched through a regular tier 5 technology, and can be built in any Starbase with a shipyard and the Titan Assembly Yards building. Titans are massive flagships that come equipped with an array of heavy long-ranged weaponry and layer upon layer of shields and armor. Their front section has a single Titanic-size slot that can fit weapons even stronger than XL weapons, such as the immensely powerful Perdition Beam that can fire across a whole system and potentially destroy a battleship in a single shot. Titans also have an aura slot that can fit a single offensive or defensive aura that can buff friendly ships in the same fleet or debuff nearby enemy ships. Titans are intended to be the flagships of your fleets, and as such are limited in number: You can always field at least one Titan, plus an additional amount dependent on your overall naval capacity.
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Ion Cannons (Apocalypse Feature)
Finally, there is one last Apocalype feature to talk about for today: Ion Cannons. Ion Cannons are stations that can be built as part of the defense platform fleet of a Starbase. Each Ion Cannon is essentially a single massive gun emplacement that mounts a single Titanic weapon, allowing the Starbase to engage enemy fleets at massive ranges and greatly improving the Starbase's ability to deal with enemy Battleships and Titans.
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That's all for today! Next week we'll continue talking about Cherryh and Apocalypse expansion, on the topic of Marauders, Pirates and the Great Khan.
 
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Pls Add some Hangars as well as some Medium Weapons to the Titan.
Titans are Flagships and will be Limited in Number.
So I dont think making them a Pure Artillery Ship is really a Good Idea.

As an Flagship they should be able to actually Participate in any Kind of Combat Properly.
After all there is only 1 of them per Fleet and even for the Empire in Total there is only a Limited Few Available.

And With the Current Loadout of Weapons. they would in Essence just be Oversized Battleships with an Bigger XXL Weapon Variant.
Which on top is likely Useless against anything that is not at least Cruiser Sized.


So Currently that Thing is Really not a Flagship. But rather an Rear Artillery Ship.
Hence.
I think they Should Receive 2-3 Hangars. As well as 4-6 Medium Weapon Slots.
So they Truly become Flagships of the Fleet. Which are more than just an Rear Artillery Unit.
 
That new class of ships will be really a good idea? It seems to me that it will only decrease the already small importance of battleships and increase for corvettes and destroyers.
 
That new class of ships will be really a good idea? It seems to me that it will only decrease the already small importance of battleships and increase for corvettes and destroyers.

According to the stream they're going to be capped and we can expect to have maybe 3-4 max. Besides, I need to show the galaxy how I'm clearly not compensating for anything by building a several kilometer long warship.
 
According to the stream they're going to be capped and we can expect to have maybe 3-4 max. Besides, I need to show the galaxy how I'm clearly not compensating for anything by building a several kilometer long warship.

Make that two several kilometer long ships and a massive hundred kilometer long planet killer.
 
No disrespect intended but I am rather underwhelmed with the weapons. I'd like a few weapon options that are less clean.

Like a nano plague mutates everything on the surface and has a chance at spawning hostile ships. Only way to ensure that it doesn't happen would be by building a quarantine station. In essence this works like the already existing super-weapon. Only has much more stick and less carrot.

Xeno invasion - Think of any Aliens movie. You drop off a few aliens and they murder everyone on the planet. In order to take the world back, you will have to invade and kill off the surviving xenos. Can imagine my marines talking about an express elevator to hell, going down. (Arguably this would be the less destructive of all options, as you could reclaim the world, if you are willing to use lots of marines)

edit: All things said, still going to get that dlc, it looks neat. Just not overly enthused with the super weapons.
 
In anticipation of 2.0, I finally played Stellaris with hyperlinks, Spiral galaxy, 4 arms (always play only that map, as its the closest to Milky-Way). OMG, it was horrible. Each arm, is very thin and as such easily blocked by all kinds of things, in every direction, or other civilizations, making the game incredibly slow, boxed in and highly aggressive on my part, just to explore or colonize a few systems ahead. Ouch. I hope, then 2.0 goes live, devs look into galaxy generation, to make sure each galactic arm, is wider, has more access links. Needless to say, I absolutely hated the game, and didn't finish it.
 
When Stellaris become Stars Wars.

What's next ? Jedi knights and Sith lords ?

There's already clone and droid armies, psychic powers that manifest due to a connection with an otherworldy force, and an army attachment that consists of mysterious warriors armed with said psychic powers as well as a preference for and mastery of melee combat.

And it takes a planet-killer to make you suspect that we're getting Star Wars-y.
 
When Stellaris become Stars Wars.

What's next ? Jedi knights and Sith lords ?

I sincerely hope there will be an option to play without these weapons.
You're aware that stellaris draws inspiration from many sci fi universes right? And that planet crackers are not exclusive to star wars?

You can not play with them by not buying the DLC. That is an option. Or hopefullythere will be a toggle if you just don't want planet killers (though we don't know yet as far as I'm aware).
 
I don't see how anything you said changes the "throw everything at the colossus" problem. Yes, you can't target it directly, meaning you have to fight you way through the fleet protecting it. Because that fleet is protecting the 'I win' button, it's going to be huge, therefor the only way to beat it is with a huger fleet that can destroy the fleet protecting the colossus and then the colossus itself. This just makes the doom stack problem worse by a thousand fold, because now you don't just lose the war in one space battle, you lose the ability to ever recover as your former planets and anything you could make claims on is destroyed.


it changes the situation becuase

1: the colosuss will not be useful in any fight, so it wont be anything but a liability in a fight... giveing you no reason to follow it around with a fleet.

2: the colossus will not be able to do anything in a system which is contested... if you own the system and therfore have captured the starfortress then your colossus will be able to destroy planets. but in that situation the battle has already occurred...

3: because just about any military vessel can kill a colossus (we dont know how long it would take a single corvett but the corvett would kill it) and becuase the comeing fleet and defense changes seem to encourage smaller fleets fighting along fronts rather than doom stack spear heads... it seems unlikely that both sides will commit there whole offensive or defensive force to a battle whoes ultimate outcome will be the destruction of a valuble planet so that neither side can claim it..... now i am not saying that this wont happen. I am just saying that it strikes me as unlikely that this will be the optimum stratagy 100% of the time....

4: the colossus can retreat from battle like any other ship, either through normal movement, the retreat button or the new auto retreat function. this combined with the jump inhibitors on starfortresses and the fact that hyperlane sensors will be available to everyone means that if you commit a doom stack to go and kill the colosuss, you could both not catch the colossus and also have your entire fleet trapped in a system while your opponant raids other systems or sends there colossus eleswhere to do its work.