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Stellaris Dev Diary #339 - Civics and Structures of The Machine Age, and Auto-Modding

Hello Stellaris Cube-munity!

Today’s dev diary looks at the civics and “kilostructures” in The Machine Age, as well as looking at a 3.12 “Andromeda” feature - Auto-Modding.

As with all of our previews, some of this is still in development, so there are still some placeholder icons and some details may still change before release. (Which is good, since it lets us incorporate some of your feedback.)

The Civics of The Machine Age​

civics.png

Let’s go through each of the new civics that are coming in The Machine Age in detail.

Guided Sapience civics​

The Guided Sapience civics focus on coexistence with natural or created pre-sapient species and the environment around them. Their homeworld and Genesis Ark colony ships uplift some of the most promising local wildlife to pre-sapient status, creating a Genesis Preserve that increases Society Research and Unity.

The bonuses from the Genesis Preserve are doubled on Gaia worlds.

genesisguides.png

Not listed in these screenshots, but other “hostile” civics like Devouring Swarm and origins like Necrophage are also excluded from these.

Natural Design civics​

While other empires seek to improve themselves through genetic modification or through ascension, others are quite certain that they are already at the apex of evolution.

naturaldesign.png

02_INSULT_CLOTHES:0 "Behold the [From.GetSpeciesAdj] form, glorious and bared for all to admire. Contrast with the paltry [Root.GetSpeciesNamePlural], cowering under their layers of cloth, knowing that the world does not want to see their sad frames."

Obsessional Directive​

In 2003, human philosopher and professor Nick Bostrom created a thought experiment about the potential existential threat an artificial general intelligence could pose even if given seemingly harmless directives.

Nick Bostrom said:
Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. The future that the AI would be trying to gear towards would be one in which there were a lot of paper clips but no humans.

Available to gestalt machine intelligences, Obsessional Directive lets you enjoy faulty programming that drives you to produce ever increasing numbers of useless Consumer Goods... At any cost.

obsessional.png

Object permanence is not necessarily one of your strengths.
The directive was to acquire the consumer goods, now that you’re done, there’s nothing preventing you from digging them back up again.

If you meet or exceed your quota, you will have options regarding what to do with your stash of office supplies, toasters, handheld electronics, or whatever other form you imagine your Consumer Goods take. Until you make friendly contact with other empires you will only have the option to create a Spire of Commodities, but later on you could trade them away for various resources. Most of your consumer goods will be removed, but the reward will scale with the amount that you produced.

Failing to meet your quota will result in a bit of a breakdown until your new, lower quota is met. On the other hand, the experience of failure does unlock a new “direct to Consumer Goods” purge type to make it easier to achieve your next goal. (Determined Exterminators start with this purge type unlocked.)

Diplomatic Protocols​

In The Machine Age, gestalt Machine Intelligences will also be getting their own variant of the diplomatic civics.

diplomatic.png

The other diplomatic civics have also been buffed to match the Diplomatic Protocols.

Tactical Algorithms​

Some machines were designed to study war in all its forms.

tactical.png

How about a nice game of chess?

These gestalt Machine Intelligences can create Mercenary Enclaves (if the game host has Overlord), have immortal Commanders, and gain military benefits from getting the opportunity to study the strategy and tactics of other empires.

Augmentation Bazaars​

At the Augmentation Bazaars, you can build a better you, and all it will cost is an arm and a leg.

augmentation.png

Now I’ll let @Gruntsatwork talk about some new space structures.

Dyson Swarms​

The path to a Dyson Sphere of your own is long and arduous, filled with empty building platforms and non-functional intermediate stages, or at least, it used to be.

Fresh with the Machine Age, we are introducing the Dyson Swarm, a predecessor and proof of concept for your Dyson Sphere plans. By putting many small satellites into orbit around a star, you can collect some of its output and enhance your research capabilities. But Paradox you say, we don’t get research from Dyson Spheres. Correct, but you do get it from Dyson Swarms, IF you place them correctly.

Dyson Swarms function slightly differently than Spheres. Instead of producing energy all on their own, they amplify whatever resources their star produces, up to 30 times. Yes, that delicate little 3 energy star will now produce 90 energy and if you were to put it on a 3 physics star, that would be a decent 90 physics research from 1 star.

And if you get really lucky and have an event spawn an even rarer resource on a star? Go right ahead, collect it all.

1712134703732.png

So swarmy.

But with all that said, there are certain restrictions on building Dyson Swarms. Those restrictions exist for a simple reason. You can upgrade one of your Swarms directly into a Stage 2 Dyson Sphere, for those juicy 1000 energy per month.

That is why you may not build Swarms around Black Holes, Neutron Stars nor upgrade them past Swarm state in systems with thriving colonies.

The Arc Furnace​

For our second new Kilostructure, allow me to introduce the Arc Furnace to you. A splendid planet-based megastructure, meant to help you alleviate your industrial needs.

Just like the Dyson Swarm, to get the most out of your shiny new Arc Furnace requires a bit more effort than merely finding a molten world and putting it down. Instead of producing resources itself, it allows you access to more of the systems resources.

In less flowery language, that means at each stage, the Arc Furnace will create deposits on every planet or asteroid in the system. First 1 Mineral deposit, then another 1 Mineral deposit. Third 1 Mineral and 1 Alloy and for the final and fourth stage, 1 more Alloy deposit.

This gives you a total of 3 Minerals and 2 Alloys on every planet or asteroid in the system, however, in addition to the deposits, the Ard Furnace also makes mining in general more effective in the system, which manifests as a small bonus to your mining station output, at the final stage a measly 100%.

So to get the most out of your Arc Furnace, you want to find molten worlds in large systems, with plenty of planets and asteroids.

1712134835326.png

Hot.

Both of those Kilostructures will become available in the early midgame, hopefully around the time you start to feel the constraints on your expansion as borders solidify and you begin to get cut off from the resources you desperately need.

Now in contrast to most Megastructures you are not limited to merely 1 of each, however, unlike Relays and Gates they have some limits. You will unlock the capacity to build 5 of these in total, spread out through the relevant technologies (6 for Arc Welders)

Species Auto-Modification (“Auto-Modding”)​

I’m back now to talk about Auto-Modding. No, we’re not automatically updating your outliner mod for you when an update releases. (Sorry modders!)

Biological and Cybernetic Ascensions were particularly vulnerable to being very micromanagement heavy playstyles. You had a lot of power available to you if you adjusted, tweaked, and applied various species templates to your pops. This was effective, but very time consuming and often tedious.

With the 3.12 “Andromeda” update, we have introduced a new class of traits that will, over time, replace themselves with temporary versions of other traits based on the job the pop is currently filling. For example, a Machine pop filling a Farmer job will eventually have their Adaptive Frames change to replicate the Harvesters trait, and if they move to a Mining job they’ll eventually switch to mimicking Power Drills.

AutoMod traits have a defined list of available traits to choose from for each trait, and one pop per month will adapt to their jobs, modified by buildings like the Robot Assembly Plants or Gene Clinics.

automod.png

AutoMod traits exist for Mechanical (Adaptive Frames), Biological (Vocational Genomics), Cybernetics (Universal Augmentations), and Overtuned Traits (Fleeting Excellence).

Vocational Genomics becomes available with the Targeted Gene Expression technology, and the others are immediately available once you have access to the appropriate category of traits.

We recognize that these traits are extremely strong, but the quality of life benefits of having your pops modify themselves to fit their jobs is very high. As such, Auto-Modding and the associated traits are part of the free 3.12 “Andromeda” release.

Traits can now be categorized into normal/cyborg/robotic/psionic/advanced_genetic/overtuned.

Here’s the script for the biological auto_mod trait:
Code:
trait_auto_mod_biological = {
    cost = 3
    auto_mod = yes
    category = normal

    allowed_archetypes = { BIOLOGICAL LITHOID }
    initial = no
    randomized = no
    species_potential_add = {
        hidden_trigger = { exists = from }
        from = {
            has_technology = tech_gene_expressions
        }
    }
    species_possible_remove = {
        always = yes
    }
    species_possible_merge_remove = {
        always = yes
    }
    potential_crossbreeding_chance = 1.0
    slave_cost = {
        energy = 1000
    }
    assembly_score = {
        base = 2
    }
    custom_tooltip_with_modifiers = automodding_trait_biological_tooltip
}

Traits themselves should also include a category if you want them to be included as auto_mod possibilities:
Code:
trait_agrarian = {
    cost = 2
    category = normal
    species_possible_remove = {
        can_remove_beneficial_genetic_traits = yes
    }
    species_possible_merge_remove = {
        always = yes
    }
    potential_crossbreeding_chance = 1.0    # 1.0 = 100% chance of being considered for new traits when forming half-species. does not guarantee the trait will be added if it costs points.
    allowed_archetypes = { BIOLOGICAL }
    modifier = {
        planet_jobs_food_produces_mult = 0.15
    }
    slave_cost = {
        energy = 500
    }
    assembly_score = {
        modifier = {
            add = 1.5
            from = { has_farming_designation = yes }
        }
        modifier = {
            add = 0.5
            from = { has_rural_designation = yes }
        }
    }
}

Jobs themselves need to have a list of traits associated with them. We’ve created a number of inline scripts to handle these.

So our farmer job has the following inline script at the end of the script block:
Code:
inline_script = "jobs/automodding_priority_food"

Which expands into:
Code:
auto_trait_prio = {
    #Farmers
    trait_agrarian
    trait_farm_hands
    trait_robot_harvesters
    trait_cyborg_harvesters
}

Next Week​

Next week we’ll explore the new End-Game Crisis that’s coming in The Machine Age.

See you then!
 
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@Eladrin I have to admit that I was very excited when I heard you would be talking about "Auto-modding" because playing as anything other than Synthetic Ascension is a huge pain in the rear from a species management perspective. I am disappointed that this is the solution presented. I'm not saying I don't like the automod traits, but it doesn't do much at all to address the massive number of pops you have that don't automatically conform to a template. Could you please consider extending assimilation to genetic & cybernetic ascensions? The way I wouild suggest to do it would be to set a species right as assimilation and then select one template underneath it that all members of species that join your empire conform to that template. This would remove a ton of micro management, and with the changes relating to science would allow you to do species modification projects. The assimilation should have very quickly. This way I would only have to create one template per species that I setup as assimilation and all future members of that species to join my empire get the template I have designed for that species. Hopefully utilizing "assimilation" species right would remove the need to to a do major changes to the game since the mechanic exists already. All it would do is look for the template on that species that isn't set to "Assimilation". The other benefit is that this change would be opt-in. If people don't want to use it, they don't need too. Using assimilation should allow you to remove "psychic" or any other trait associated with another ascension that you do not possess.
 
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@Eladrin I have to admit that I was very excited when I heard you would be talking about "Auto-modding" because playing as anything other than Synthetic Ascension is a huge pain in the rear from a species management perspective. I am disappointed that this is the solution presented. I'm not saying I don't like the automod traits, but it doesn't do much at all to address the massive number of pops you have that don't automatically conform to a template. Could you please consider extending assimilation to genetic & cybernetic ascensions? The way I wouild suggest to do it would be to set a species right as assimilation and then select one template underneath it that all members of species that join your empire conform to that template. This would remove a ton of micro management, and with the changes relating to science would allow you to do species modification projects. The assimilation should have very quickly. This way I would only have to create one template per species that I setup as assimilation and all future members of that species to join my empire get the template I have designed for that species. Hopefully utilizing "assimilation" species right would remove the need to to a do major changes to the game since the mechanic exists already. All it would do is look for the template on that species that isn't set to "Assimilation". The other benefit is that this change would be opt-in. If people don't want to use it, they don't need too. Using assimilation should allow you to remove "psychic" or any other trait associated with another ascension that you do not possess.

Wall of text was super effective
Dealt 142% damage
 
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I cant bring myself to read all this but when is machine age dropping? :D
 
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I'm just going to throw my two cents here.

I like most of the civics but I do think Natural Design might be a tough sell in it's current state. I do like the idea of a species purposefully choosing to not alter their genetic makeup and the restrictions of not being able to gene-mod or choose ascension paths makes sense conceptually. It's just given the bonuses that we see which is more trait points and picks, and a building that increases pop growth and resources, I don't know if it's entirely worth it to pick at the cost of not being able to pick ascension paths and not being able to gene-mod. That's giving up a lot of late-game power and cool mechanics. And while I do feel like this is part of the intended design, I'm not necessarily sure if this is very fun to play as is. I think the closest comparison to it is probably Clone Army. And Clone Army is super cool because you get access to what is a super-trait that you can either choose to go even more super and keep the restrictions for late game, or take a weaker variant in exchange for not being restricted. In addition, Clone Army isn't restricted from your entire empire from taking the ascension, even if some of them are questionable choices for your main species. And if you pick up other species, they're still available to be gene-modded, or cyborgized, etc. Since the civic applies this restriction at the empire level, it means all of those alternate methods of play are restricted. In addition, the +2 trait points will be caught up by midgame by other empires with the biological techs, and ascension paths even more so.
You are correct but I guess you are also looking at the more material side of things - ‘what do i gain vs lose by picking or not picking an ascension’.

When simply it can be that some people just don’t make an active choice because it creates work in a part of a game they are already ‘working’ and like to keep their empires relatively simple. Not fun? Maybe but some people do play the game differently to others, I think I’m even one of them.

Again not to say your wrong but there is another perspective to consider and it’s in the area of accessibility and ease.
 
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Natural Design civics​

While other empires seek to improve themselves through genetic modification or through ascension, others are quite certain that they are already at the apex of evolution.

View attachment 1110182
02_INSULT_CLOTHES:0 "Behold the [From.GetSpeciesAdj] form, glorious and bared for all to admire. Contrast with the paltry [Root.GetSpeciesNamePlural], cowering under their layers of cloth, knowing that the world does not want to see their sad frames."
How exactly is this gonna work with techs or relic that give you trait points, like gene tailoring or omnicodex? Will you be unable to apply new traits points because you can't modify your species anymore? Will you be unable to utilize overtuned to its full potential either beacuse you can't modify and specialize your pops?

What happens when species of natural design empire gets into empire with ascension path or vice versa? Does that mean empires with ascension paths can get super species by ascending this species? Shouldn't this civic have corresponding species trait then, or it already has one?

And how does genomic buildings work, are they replace medical centers/spawning pools or they are separate building and can be build alongside those?
 
How exactly is this gonna work with techs or relic that give you trait points, like gene tailoring or omnicodex? Will you be unable to apply new traits points because you can't modify your species anymore? Will you be unable to utilize overtuned to its full potential either because you can't modify and specialize your pops?

And how does genomic buildings work, are they replace medical centers/spawning pools or they are separate building and can be build alongside those?
It will likely work like clone solider origin, you can't modify them. Also overturned is not available as a origin for this civic. Separate building.

Your other questions are not know , I am curious about how they will interact with other empires too.
 
It will likely work like clone solider origin, you can't modify them. Also overturned is not available as a origin for this civic. Separate building.
but they aren't same, clone army is origin, and is attached to species, while this one is civic, and won't let you genemod any organic species, perhaps devs better off making it origin too
 
but they aren't same, clone army is origin, and is attached to species, while this one is civic, and won't let you genemod any organic species, perhaps devs better off making it origin too
I don't agree. The civic is called natural design, not "natural design for us and whatever for everyone else". They even get a diplomatic negative with empires that took ascension paths.

Empires with this civic abhor body modding and psyelevation in all of their forms, so modifying other species is equally negative.
 
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How exactly is this gonna work with techs or relic that give you trait points, like gene tailoring or omnicodex? Will you be unable to apply new traits points because you can't modify your species anymore? Will you be unable to utilize overtuned to its full potential either beacuse you can't modify and specialize your pops?

What happens when species of natural design empire gets into empire with ascension path or vice versa? Does that mean empires with ascension paths can get super species by ascending this species? Shouldn't this civic have corresponding species trait then, or it already has one?

And how does genomic buildings work, are they replace medical centers/spawning pools or they are separate building and can be build alongside those?
I think this origin would make gene clinics mandatory along with the genomic building with the medical workers generating unity and pop growth that scales. The +10% production to jobs seems pretty useful too.

The civic seems to give a good buff with no early negatives, and then other empires can catch up and surpass it with tech and bodymodding + ascension and advanced traits, but natural design might have outgrown them.

I always wanted to make an empire that uses robots but doesn't "become" robots and it never made much sense not to take the ascension, maybe this could be a nice way to go about it paired with the upgraded mechanists origin. You don't take the ascension but don't lose as much as you normally would with this and you have extra traits for both organics/robots pop and extra growth organics/robots pop.

I wonder if the +10% bonus to jobs from the genomic building applies to robots... does that make sense for them to benefit if they have no genes?
 
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but they aren't same, clone army is origin, and is attached to species, while this one is civic, and won't let you genemod any organic species, perhaps devs better off making it origin too
Which is why I believe they should be given a special trait, personally a unity producing one would make sense, that keeps you from genemodding.
 
I wonder, will building a fully upgraded Dyson Swarm give a quicker path to late-game Megastructures and Galactic Wonders AP?

At the moment, if you want a Dyson Sphere, when you can get one is hugely RNG-dependent.
1. If you stumble across a ruined late-game Megastructure, you get 20x draw weight on Mega-Engineering so it will appear relatively soon; then you repair the Megastructure in one go; then you're good to go with Galactic Wonders. Obviously if the ruined Megastructure is a Dyson Sphere itself, you've ended up with a Dyson Sphere very quickly indeed (and in that case, you can go right ahead and build a second Dyson Sphere to dunk on those poor saps in the megastructure slow lane); but even if it isn't, you still have a hefty tempo advantage on your whole build queue of megastructures, Dyson Sphere included.
2. If you don't stumble across a ruined Megastructure, you're in the slow lane:
- wait to draw Mega-Engineering out of the tech pile, which can take a while as it only has a base draw weight of 5 (although you can get multipliers from Habitats, starbases etc)
- research some specific Megastructure (let's say Mega-Shipyard)
- build all the stages of your Mega-Shipyard
- now you can finally click Galactic Wonders AP
- research the tech and then start building Dyson sphere, after more decades it is finally complete
- The whole thing is so exhausting that your government resolves never to build a Dyson Sphere again, only to steal them from other empires.
 
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Could the spyware directives civic get the lv 1 cloaking tech as a permanent research option (or starting tech)?
Would be cool to have a civic that enables a proper dark forest empire that you can try to hide as long as possible.
 
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Thanks man. How do the two structure interact?
They don't. The furnace doesn't add deposits or modifiers to the star, and the dyson swarm doesn't change the planets. Though, arguably, the furnace's alloy income pays for the swarm, and the swarm (if on energy) pays for the furnace. That's kinda like an interaction.
 
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