Stellaris Dev Diary #318 - Announcing Astral Planes

[AaronWaterhog]

Yet Materialists, Hive Minds and Machine Intelligences refuse to study the Shroud

Materialists already can if they get sufficient evidence within their borders (a leader who specializes in it, or if I recall psy pops), they just can't duplicate psy tech if they haven't gone down that ascension (same as every other ascension, really). Hives, if I recall the lore correctly, are already partially Shroud-based so they probably don't really find a need to. Machines lack the required spark that lets biologicals use the Shroud, so their only real option is forcing their way in to change the metaphysics.

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

1.
It was about time for a new story pack.
Purple is the noblest shroud.

2.
Still hoping for roving void clouds, so we get to see them create effluvial offspring more often.

3.

With more and more direct proof of the shrouds existence ingame the stance of the materialists makes less and less sense.

In my opinion...
Their fundamental disagreement is not about empiricism, but about what comes first - the spirit or the matter. Whether reality begets will, or will begets reality. Whether material, mechanical interactions create minds, or whether minds/spirits create physical reality. "I think, therefore I am" versus "I am, therefore I think". The existence of the Shroud (arguably a dimension of will) does not provide any answer to this.

(Though in my opinion, Spiritualist and Materialist should also be opposites in how they value material versus immaterial stuff. This is a reasonable consequence of their fundamental philosophical positions, and would make them less monodimensional.)

 

[DeanTheDull]

A nearly infinite number of universes connect to our own.​

Ours is not the only one that is full of wonder…​

It's my great pleasure to announce that Astral Planes will be released alongside the Stellaris 3.10 ‘Pyxis’ update.

View attachment 1031681
​

Well, I'm interested.

...and probably going to put off getting back into Stellaris until this release. And possibly later, as a Christmas gift option for family.

​

Every adventure requires a step into the unknown.​

Astral Planes is a narrative-focused expansion that adds mid to late game exploration content with over 30 Astral Rifts with widely branching storylines.

Unlike the relative safety of Archaeology sites, the Rifts you explore will lead to completely different realms of existence, where fundamentals that were certain at home may not always be true.
​

With the theme of exploration, there are three main questions in my mind given the Archaeology comparison.

1- Does gameplay of rift exploration clicking ships to move them around inside of this rift, or is mostly text box like a Situation?
If the rifts are branching narratives more like Situations, that could be interesting, but will become 'click optimal dialogue box' bingo after a bit. Which isn't bad- Knights of Toxic God is a lot of fun- but maybe not what's intended.
(Edit: checking steam page, that seems exactly what it is.)


2- Is accessing a rift a territorial controlled monopoly, in the same way that archeology sites can only be excavated by the system owner?
Since Archeology sites are randomly distributed across the map, this is one area where wider empires get more content per game. If Rifts can be freely accessed via open borders, Overlord access mechanics, or even special treaties, that would mitigate the wide advantage for getting these benefits.

3- Do the risks of the Rifts amount to the long-awaited midgame crisis concepts, something to shake up the galactic status quo before the end-game?
The Khan's original purpose remains valid, even if the Khan has generally fallen victim to power creep. It's still a net improvement if the rifts are mid-game 'things to do before the crisis shows', but it'll be better if they are map-affecting rather than time-filling.

Astral Planes includes: ​

• Over 30 Astral Rifts to explore
• 8 new Relics
• 4 Civics
• 1 Origin
• Astral Threads and Astral Actions
• 3 new music tracks composed by Andreas Waldetoft

Given the mid-to-late game framing of these, I predict that the civics/origins will be about accessing the rifts earlier / more profitably, but also be relatively modest on the early-game-meta power scale.

Which is fine, for mid-game government reform fodder, but we shall see.



I also note that no Ascension Perk identified? If so, that would be the first in... well, some time.

 

[Celulthor]

I love it! More story content and expanding exploration phase is always welcome. I'm hoping maybe something about the mysterious power(s) related to Ultima Vigilis and the overlords of the Vagrosians?

The Steam page for Astral Planes is a bit funny though. I mean, I get it: there will be rifts. It's just that 4/10 images is just about a slightly different rift. Imagine, if Civ7 was announced today, and 4/10 images released depicted the Pyramids in slightly different angle and lighting. I do understand, that the nature of a narrative pack is such, that non-rift images might spoil too much. Maybe this is a situation, where less would be more?

 

[DeanTheDull]

No, just no. After Paragons, I am not buying another expansion pack for or game based on Stellaris until I see absolutely glowing reviews for it>

...did you really stick around the designated forum of a game you no longer intend to patronize just to say you weren't going to patronize the game?

 

[DurianKing]

We've categorized this as a Narrative Expansion due to the amount of content within the rifts. Bigger than a normal Story Pack, but not a Full Expansion.

Sick. Something new to shake things up. Looking forward to more options for asymmetrical play (like with the Quantum Catapult).

 

[Calvax]

1- Does gameplay of rift exploration clicking ships to move them around inside of this rift, or is mostly text box like a Situation?
If the rifts are branching narratives more like Situations, that could be interesting, but will become 'click optimal dialogue box' bingo after a bit. Which isn't bad- Knights of Toxic God is a lot of fun- but maybe not what's intended.
On the flip side, if the rifts open up 'parallel maps'- like entirely new (minor) galaxies with ship movements and scanning opportunities with the scenario driving chokepoint progress- that would be very much an exploration experience.

Going by the steam pages I think it’s best people don’t get their hopes up too much on the exploration line. Seems like there’s a lot of story but nothing akin to the exploration mechanics in the game of surveying and revealing fog of war.

 

[DeanTheDull]

Going by the steam pages I think it’s best people don’t get their hopes up too much on the exploration line. Seems like there’s a lot of story but nothing akin to the exploration mechanics in the game of surveying and revealing fog of war.

Aye, just saw that. Recalibrated something that wasn't truly anticipated.

 

[Calvax]

There's also this picture, with... a cable attached to a planet? And weird gem-like things on the surface.

I think that's meant to be a rift sphere, not a planet. The perspective's a bit wonky but the big sphere is a planet and the smaller sphere to the right is like a probe sent into the rift. Or at least that's my read going by his steam image

Aye, just saw that. Recalibrated something that wasn't truly anticipated.

I could be wrong of course. I've just seen a few posts on reddit and elsewhere really focising on that exploration description and theorycrafting new map layers, which seems to setting up for disappointment.

 

[pekkegnito]

Oh goody... we´re going to be poking at holes in reality. What could possibly go wrong, right?

I mean, Escher Geometry universes? The demiplane of Mechanus? Eternal Eclipse Landscapes? Just how many visual cues do we need to get hit by until we get the memo "Don't poke around here. Bad things lurk beneath the surface."

Sometimes I wonder how we managed to survive beyond the "Primordial Soup" stage...

 

[GnoSIS]

Since this is outsourced, I expect them to come out with a major expansion focusing on mechanics soon. Because I can't think of them sitting on their hands.

If they don't have a major expansion in the works and this is just it. there will be trouble.

 

[zZander56]

They're more like event chains that require an assigned scientist.

Isn't that all archeology sites are?

 

[Panzerslothen]

I don't understand. Since Overlord (May'22) we haven't got any "major" expansion.

Galactic Paragons was this year's major expansion. Major expansions usually release in April/May.

2. Still hoping for roving void clouds, so we get to see them create effluvial offspring more often.

Oh man, that'd be sweet.

 

[Rafss]

Materialists already can if they get sufficient evidence within their borders (a leader who specializes in it, or if I recall psy pops), they just can't duplicate psy tech if they haven't gone down that ascension (same as every other ascension, really). Hives, if I recall the lore correctly, are already partially Shroud-based so they probably don't really find a need to. Machines lack the required spark that lets biologicals use the Shroud, so their only real option is forcing their way in to change the metaphysics.

That is why you go down the Psitronic ascension path with special implants, compatible with organics and machines, it's a technological interface granting all the bonuses psionic pops have, or maybe Psitronic Traits somewhat like cyborgs.
That way you can have Psionic Shields in your machine ships for example, instead of observing the evidence that it exists as a superior technology and ignoring it completely.

 

[RabbaDooDabba]

Will the Galactic Imperium/Community interact in any way with the rifts, especially the tier 5 resolution: Extradimensional Experimentation ?

 

[Calvax]

That is why you go down the Psitronic ascension path with special implants, compatible with organics and machines, it's a technological interface granting all the bonuses psionic pops have, or maybe Psitronic Traits somewhat like cyborgs.
That way you can have Psionic Shields in your machine ships for example, instead of observing the evidence that it exists as a superior technology and ignoring it completely.

If the devs completely reworked all ascension paths to be open to all empires with different flavours then I wouldn't mind too much if this was a thing. But I do think that it's less interesting worldbuilding to say the shroud is simply science that hasn't been figured out yet. There is plenty of space in speculative fiction to explore phenomenon beyond the scope of empirical philosophy to comprehend. As I said elsewhere in this thread that's a basic pillar of eldritch horror that can work quite well in scifi. It's inherently scary and fascinating to think that there could be things that we can't make an predictive model for.

It's not that hard to think of why in this specific instance either. The shroud isn't a realm of physics but of metaphysics. It's not unconscious like nature but a literal dimension of thought. Imagine how frustrating it would be for an empirically minded scientist to find that the laws of "nature" they're trying to study have agendas and can choose when they apply or not. Particularly if they only seem to apply in a predictable way for those who have a mindset antithetical to empiricism.

There's nothing wrong with the idea of magitech in science fiction of course. It's a fun genre choice. At the same time there's nothing wrong with not including that in favour of cosmic horror lite.

 

[A2ch0n]

A question, has anyone seen this shiptype before? My first thought was necroid or human science ships, but it seems to be something else. Just a creative part of the picture or an actual hint on special new ships?

 

[Rafss]

I think Astral Planes disproves all of that, transforming the Shroud into another plane to be explored and understood. If you want to keep the Shroud magical, then don't release a DLC literally about entering those fantastic places with scientists of any kind of empire.
Astral Planes has brought the fantasy of the Shroud down to the ground, the purple blanket has been lifted forever.
I want my empires to acknowledge that regardless of their origins, without having to go to the extreme of killing everyone else with a giant engine. One day I know this will happen, the devs will do it just like they gave Hives another path in the last ascension rework.

 

[Calvax]

View attachment 1032719

A question, has anyone seen this shiptype before? My first thought was necroid or human science ships, but it seems to be something else. Just a creative part of the picture or an actual hint on special new ships?

Pretty sure that's a humanoid science ship

I think Astral Planes disproves all of that, transforming the Shroud into another plane to be explored and understood. If you want to keep the Shroud magical, then don't release a DLC literally about entering those fantastic places with scientists of any kind of empire.
Astral Planes has brought the fantasy of the Shroud down to the ground, the purple blanket has been lifted forever.
I want my empires to acknowledge that regardless of their origins, without having to go to the extreme of killing everyone else with a giant engine.

But these planes have nothing to do with the shroud. The fact that there might be alternate dimensions that can be empirically understood doesn't mean that every alternate dimension can be.

 

[ImperatorRoman]

There's also this picture, with... a cable attached to a planet? And weird gem-like things on the surface.
View attachment 1032664
Dunno, maybe it's part of the story, nothing in the text seems relevant. Can't say it's obviously AI, but it doesn't look very clean.
You can see for yourself: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2534090/Stellaris_Astral_Planes/

The cable is attached to the rift sphere, not the planet. Rift spheres are mentioned in the third screenshot on the Steam page.