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Stellaris Dev Diary #341 - Become the Crisis: Cosmogenesis

Hello again!

The Machine Age will be arriving on Tuesday, May 7th, and is available for pre-purchase on its own or as part of Stellaris: Season 08.

Stellaris: Season 08 includes all of this year’s major Stellaris releases at a 20% discount, plus includes the Rick the Cube machine portrait as an immediate unlock. I do a quick rundown of the things that are in it in this video:


Today we’re going to look at the new Become the Crisis path, Cosmogenesis.

Becoming the Crisis​

Back in Nemesis, we introduced the Become the Crisis Ascension Perk, which let an empire choose to embrace their darkest impulses, manipulating and concentrating fluctuations in the Shroud created by horrific acts in a bid to ascend to a higher existence.

That Crisis, now renamed Galactic Nemesis, accumulated a resource called Menace by committing evil deeds in order to advance through its crisis path.

Cosmogenesis has a bit of a different philosophy. Where the Galactic Nemesis operates through explicit malice, intentionally attempting to maximize the amount of suffering they can cause, an empire following the path of Cosmogenesis is more of a crisis to the galaxy due to callous indifference while pursuing what is theoretically a more noble cause.

Cosmogenesis Ascension Perk

Cosmogenesis can be selected as your fourth Ascension Perk. (In 3.12, Galactic Nemesis will also be moved to become available as a fourth perk.) Like Galactic Nemesis, you cannot take it if you are Custodian or Emperor, or are not independent. Unlike the previous crisis path, however, this one is not ethics locked. Even a Xenophile Pacifist can delude themselves into thinking that a small amount of possible, unintentional suffering now may be a worthwhile sacrifice for a better future.

Event image from Cosmogenesis

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Galactic Nemesis dealt with quantity over quality. Cosmogenesis empires are the opposite. They seek the secrets of the Fallen Empires, desiring to reach the power they had in their prime.

Cosmogenesis Crisis UI


Some Cosmogenesis Crisis Perks

Some of the Crisis Perks.

One of the shortcuts you can use to get there is the Synaptic Lathe. A powerful research facility, it harnesses the power of minds to compute and store data, with the slight downside of burning them out over time. It can be upgraded twice, and uses a simplified variant of the planet interface.

Synaptic Lathe

Yes, you can (and should) Ascend the Lathe

The districts unlock building slots, and either increase Research or Advanced Logic generated by the Neural Chips. The buildings can significantly modify many aspects of the Synaptic Lathe, whether it be Synaptic Preservers that reduce the burnout rate of Neural Chips, Neural Stabilizers that keep the Chips content and less rebellious, or even Synaptic Overclockers which will increase the effectiveness of the Neural Chips but burn them out much more quickly.

The more Neural Chips you have contained within the Lathe, the more effective it becomes, as every chip improves the output of every other chip, resulting in a nonlinear productivity growth curve but make sure that there is always pops for the lathe to process, or risk seeing it break down for lack of suitable components.

Synaptic Lathe Buildings and Districts

A brief overview of the Synaptic Lathe

To streamline the process of recruiting “volunteers” for the Synaptic Lathe, you can set species to use the Synaptic Service purge type, which will automatically resettle pops to the Lathe over time.

Synaptic Service Purge Type

Service Guarantees Citizensh... Actually, Never Mind.

At Rank 4, you’ll gain the ability to experiment upon reality through your Applied Infinity Theses. These allow you to attempt to make improvements on a stubborn reality, which can have galactic or localized effects. Sometimes these go well…

Examples of some Infinity Theses

For our next experiment, let’s round pi to 3. It’ll make calculations so much easier.


But other times things don’t go quite as planned, and the simple folk from other empires that just don’t understand may get upset.

A thesis did not go so well, but we still learned something.

At least we still learned something!

Frustratingly, reality is resilient, and does not take kindly to “adjustment”. But the Infinity Sphere has been nice enough to provide a potential solution. A new universe would be much more malleable than this ancient one that is stuck in its ways.

Event image from Cosmogenesis

Once the Horizon Needle is completed, the Exodus begins. It’s time to embark the people from your colonies onto the ship, and go into a bold new world.

Situation Entry from Cosmogenesis

Should you succeed, a perfect new universe will be created to your specifications, and your people will have endless and true understanding. Based on some of the choices you make during the Exodus, there are several endings to your journey.

We won the game!

Oh, what happens to this universe? That’s not really your problem anymore at that point, is it?

It doesn’t all explode, if that’s what you’re asking. That would be a terrible, senseless waste. (Okay, parts do, but that’s really just collateral damage.)

Every end is a new beginning.​


The aftereffects of your final experiment will ripple across the galaxy, causing significant problems for those that were left behind. A control group that elects to stay behind and observe from your former empire will protect itself well. The rest of the galaxy isn’t quite as prepared.

Event image from Cosmogenesis

Their grammar was also damaged in the time stop.

With the ability to select a new empire to continue the game after losing the game (or winning, in this case), we’ve chosen to let you continue to explore the fate of the universe after the Cosmogenesis empire completes its mad goal. Your old empire will remain in the game as a true Fallen Empire.

Our Empire as a Fallen Empire Remnant

Multiplayer Resync​

Another feature we’re adding in the 3.12 “Andromeda” release is a Multiplayer Resync button.

This button, as the name suggests, resyncs a game to hopefully allow you to continue if an Out of Sync error occurs. It won’t always solve the issues, but when it does, it’ll save you some time as you’ll no longer have to quit and rehost the game.

Out of Sync error

Normally a reason for the Out of Sync is listed, but I forced the desync so nothing is actually wrong.

1713264387954.png

Transferring data!

Next Week​

The Machine Age is getting close!

Next week will be the first Art of The Machine Age dev diary. The artists have so much to show that they’ll have another one post-release.

See you then!
 
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With the new crisis perks the original crisis perk aka colossus project feels very lackluster.

I think it either needs to be beefed up to justify being an ascension perk or should be demoted to a regular tech like the juggernaut.
 
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Does this new reality-bending research interact in any way with the Shroud?

Also, since we get FE buildings, does that mean that the Dimensional Fabricator gets the additional +2 Living Metal/Dark Matter/Zro, which is currently exclusive to Fallen Empires?
 
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I'd love to have a special ending if we elect the Worm's black hole to create a new universe. That is, if the Worm ever decides to spawn.
 
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after the exodus, will we be able to choose an already existing civilization among those used by the AI and therefore with its current technological level or will all technologies be reset and we will all start from scratch? (and therefore as if we were starting a new game?) will it ever be possible, without using mods, to increase the number of stars to 1200 as the maximum size? it would also be nice to have the possibility of increasing the number of leviathans in a game (they are too few by default, it would be appropriate if all of them automatically always appeared, perhaps due to events in the game and therefore once the game has started, a bit like dimensional horror )
 
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Can we do cosmogenesis multiple times in same playtrough?
Also massacre galaxy with Event Horizon (this Worm event), End of Cycle and finish it with Nemesis crisis?
 
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When you take another empire to control in a latter part of the game. Won't it mean that with the loss of ai bonuses all the planets will be wrecked due overpopulation and immediatly revolt? Do we get a grace period of bonus ammenities ir something like that?

P.S. since this is lossely related to FE. Can we get a operation/situation to force a War In Heaven beetween fallen empires :D
 
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I'm not saying anything, but it just so happens that I also made the Knights.
Since you made the Knights (one of my favorite origins!) could you answer if Individualistic Machines could also be Knights? Specifically can they take that origin? I can see why Gestalts cannot, but Individualist Machines should be able too. Thanks!
 
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This DLC is monumental! It seems like Stellaris still has more than enough juice left in the tank. So long as the engine continues working, I'm happy to see more updates, especially if they're going to be as high quality as this.

I'd say that the biggest shift is that you're happier now to add onto systems you've already built DLC for (both paid releases and custodians)- I'm all for it! It'd be nice for GC policies, spy networks, and internal politics to get some love over time.

I'm hoping (and suspecting) that you recognise that there's scope for psionics and genetics to have dedicated releases too. It'll be really nice to have beefy decisions to make for all the ascension paths.

Keep up the great work guys! <3
 
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Since you made the Knights (one of my favorite origins!) could you answer if Individualistic Machines could also be Knights? Specifically can they take that origin? I can see why Gestalts cannot, but Individualist Machines should be able too. Thanks!
Sadly no. Some interactions in the quests worked off the assumption that you are not a machine. The best example for this is when you meet Syamelle. These are not unsolvable issues by any means, but we do not have the resources to address them at the moment.
 
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One detail i haven't yet understood about the ascension paths:

The 3 new Ascension paths are for machine empires, right?
Or can i go from organic to virtual/modular? What happens to synthetic?
Is synthetic a prerequisite for the new ones if i start organic? I highly doubt that, since that would be two ascension paths and that has always been excluded, so far.

Maybe it was explained somewhere and i just missed it, but i am certain i read the DD about that rather thorough.
 
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If the Lathe kills pops, is there any special interaction for a Death Cult? Seems like your pops wouldn't be unhappy at all to join the great brain machine in the sky...
 
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Sadly no. Some interactions in the quests worked off the assumption that you are not a machine. The best example for this is when you meet Syamelle. These are not unsolvable issues by any means, but we do not have the resources to address them at the moment.
I thought it was scripted to handle empires that had already Synthetically Ascended including the Syamelle interaction, wouldn't that function the same way? Even organics these days utilize love robots.... just saying.
 
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I really appreciate a new crisis ascension path that's available to even the likes of an Inward Perfectionist empire. In fact, it seems all the more fitting that an incredibly uncaring and calloused empire would want to ascend at the cost of the rest of the galaxy.

Admittedly though, I am interested in the bad things that happen to the rest of the galaxy while you're pursuing Cosmogenesis. Surely it would have to be destructive enough that other people would actually be incentivized to try to stop you with military force, even if you're not actively killing off other aliens for your cause, especially when you reach level 5. Like, from a gameplay perspective, it would be really weird if nobody tried to stop you as you approached your victory, so I'm hoping that like the Galactic Nemesis, there will actually be some kind of a mechanic in place that incentivizes other empires to try and stop you, both flavor-wise and gameplay-wise (since they're about to lose).
 
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Are you guys sure we cant start a new galaxy after become a fallen empire? with most of the galaxy empty and new empires pooping up? it would be great for my empire headlore. If not i hope a mod solve this wish of mine.
 
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One detail i haven't yet understood about the ascension paths:

The 3 new Ascension paths are for machine empires, right?
Or can i go from organic to virtual/modular? What happens to synthetic?
Is synthetic a prerequisite for the new ones if i start organic? I highly doubt that, since that would be two ascension paths and that has always been excluded, so far.

Maybe it was explained somewhere and i just missed it, but i am certain i read the DD about that rather thorough.
The three machines ascensions are exclusive for machine empires aka gestalt machines or individualist machines. Undergoing Synthetic ascension does not allow you to pick them after you've abandoned your meat.

If you're made of organic matter (or stone, I don't judge) you still only have access to the four "old" ascensions
 
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